HI everyone, I haven't posted in a couple of months due to life craziness, but I was wondering if I could trouble you all for your ideas/suggestions on how to address my DS8's situation.
I posted a while back about his sensory and fine motor issues, which he is getting OT privately for. He is at the top of his class (2nd grade) and is being evaluated for the GT program. I am worried, though, that he will not get accepted because he totally blew the CogATs, didn't even answer 10 of the quant questions for some reason.
So who knows what will happen there.
My biggest concern right now is his handwriting, which has been a challenge for him. His writing is beautiful now, but his OT says it is too slow for his age. She chalks it up partly to him trying to make it perfect and has been trying to get him to worry less about that and just make it legible in order to speed up. I had a conference with his teacher yesterday though, who gave me a "messy" example of his writing to demonstrate that sometimes he doesn't put forth his best effort when she knows that he can (because it is usually beautiful). This was before I brought up any issues about writing. When I told her what the OT said, she was surprised and didn't think he had any issues with handwriting and when it was messy she attributed that to occasional laziness basically. She acknowledged that he has zero trouble with the concepts, he knows WHAT to write, just doesn't always want to spend the time to physically do it sometimes. She says it doesn't take him longer than other kids to do the assignments and kind of politely dismissed the idea that there might be a problem.
So two things: first, I feel like he's getting mixed messages, the OT says speed up it doesn't have to be perfect, but his teacher does implicitly seem to expect it to be fairly close to perfect (although, to be fair, the messy example was illegible not just a little messy). Second, I'm thinking, well maybe it takes the same amount of time for him to do the assignment as the other kids, but he is spending MOST of that time concentrating on the writing itself because he doesn't NEED to spend as much time figuring out what to write because that comes faster for him, KWIM? So his intelligence is masking his handwriting issues at school? And if that's true, what do I do about it? Especially if the teacher and the school don't recognize a problem even though the OT sees it? In our schools, you don't qualify for OT or other such assistance unless you are working two grade levels below, so he will never get formal assistance at school.
And then, part of me thinks that maybe the teacher is right and there isn't a problem and I am just making this all up in my head. We have been unable to have him privately tested yet due to the costs of finding someone who has the appropriate knowledge/experience with 2E. I feel like his motor skill and sensory issues impact his life significantly, but these things are often not recognized by others so sometimes you just feel like you're making it all up, you know?
I could write more, but I will stop here. I would love any advice you have or similar experiences you have to share. I really value the opinions of people on this board. And it is nice to feel a little less alone.
