Here's the catch-22 though - if you'd started with the writing specialist, you wouldn't be aware of the DCD, would you? I'm not asking about this to be picking, just pointing out how difficult and complicated challenges like this can be to understand. My ds' diagnosis is actually DCD, with dysgraphia as a component of the DCD. DCD presents in many different forms, and I only really have my ds' experience to draw from, but the DCD impacts him in other areas of his life - and had I started with simply a writing specialist, he/she would not have seen outside the writing frame - which means we might not be seeing other impacts of DCD for what they really are - so many of the symptoms can be misinterpreted as laziness, lack of focus etc.
I absolutely agree that starting with a full neuropsych eval is very important. What we learned about my DS through this was invaluable. The point I was trying to make was that in my experience, having only a neuropsych eval was not enough. We really needed someone who worked with my child over a period of time to understand all that was going on for him. We found both to be necessary.
I also agree that finding the right place where accommodations are needed vs further work with learning is a very tricky thing - otoh, I think the "trick" is more in not letting ourselves press too hard in the direction of not accommodating. We all want our kids to learn how to use handwriting, and they will need some very basic skills with handwriting (how to sign their name, for instance). But it's really hard as a parent to notice at what point too *much* effort is going into learning letters and producing handwriting.
Again, I agree with you but maybe I didn't phrase my post well. What I learned are accommodations are important, but they need to be the right and appropriate accommodations made by a professional who really understands the child. I learned this the hard way that it needs to come from someone who really understands dsygraphia and how it affects a particular child. In my DS's situation, his first grade teacher (who was terrible for him) and I decided how much he would write versus have scribed based on some general accommodation recommendations from the neuropsych. What was wrong about this is that neither his teacher or I have the knowledge about dsygraphia to make these types of decisions. polarbear makes a key point -- it is hard as a parent to know. The writing specialist he is working with now is the type of professional who can make these recommendations because she understands both him and dsygraphia.
