Mamabear - here the OT seems to be possible as a stand alone but only if it's impacting the ability to learn - there's language they use for that and I can't recall it. In fact the teacher who is urging us to do this said he might not qualify for services because of the lack of harm.
Ability to learn is not the only factor. By law they are required to work on both academic and functional skills; if his handwriting is impaired but not affecting learning, that may still be a functional skill deficit. Go to Wrightslaw.com and type "functional" in their search box for more info on this.
What we really want from this is the answer to whether he is below standard for K rather than gifted K in fine motor - DeeDee and Aculady - do you think the school OT would be qualified to do that? And what the problem is if there is one. We might ultimately need to evaluate for dyslexia or dysgraphia but from what I read it's just too early to tell now.
I agree, nobody is likely to diagnose dyslexia or dysgraphia that early.
What you describe (is he behind or at standard for K) is something the school OT is supposed to be able to do. YMMV, but we have had very mixed experiences, with the school OT sometimes choosing not to remediate things that were obvious, glaring problems. Outside OTs are highly variable as well.
If it's dysgraphia, you're going to end up at a neuropsych eventually, because this kind of diagnosis is outside of an OT's training.
And kindergarten is tricky-- the level of fine motor skill that is presumed is very, very low, so it's likely they'll tell you he's fine, whether or not there is a problem, unless the problem is so enormous that anybody could see it.
Sorry to sound a bit pessimistic... we have obviously had very mixed experiences about motor skills remediation.
DeeDee
