A laypersons observations of him would he a kid who has an awkward running style, weak muscles, can't pedal anything, can't catch or throw well, has trouble with buttons, zippers, etc., is a sloppy eater who uses his hands too much and tends to drop stuff a lot.
This was my DS at 5 - add to it that he fell down a lot. He was clumsy, clumsy, clumsy. He also engaged in sensory seeking behaviours, like running and purposefully landing - cringe - on his knees (you could tell the difference between this behaviour and accidental falling). There was seeking in all sensory areas - I could write a novel-length list.
Anyway. His diagnoses are ADHD, Language processing disorder, and a piece of CAPD (binaural integration imbalance).
At 8 he's like a different kid. He's still not phenomenally athletic (can't seem to learn how to swim), but physically he's become very, very typical.
We've never done OT, but we have done skating, swimming and gymnastics. Plus we walk a lot, and at one point had a paper route. I read and read as much as I could about sensory/motor issues and came to the conclusion that the brain needs to be exposed to movement in order to learn how to modulate it... so I just kept DS active. Exposure, exposure.
Eventually his gross and fine motor weaknesses issues improved to the point where you can't pick him out of the typical kids in this regard (although I'm sure the jock kids can still leave him in the dust, lol). He learned to ride a bike at 6, he can skate quite well (level 4 in Canskate), he rides a scooter well, his printing looks like that of all the typical boys in his class, he can eat without spilling, etc etc. The last three years have been fantastic as far as his development is concerned.
(there's always hope
...just keep at it)
