mykids, I was curious about what brought you to consider testing for dysgraphia, so I looked back through a few of your old posts. Is this your 3rd grade ds that you're interested in testing? If so, I'd really recommend an evaluation that looks at his overall educational picture - not just dysgraphia. Your previous posts indicated he's had ongoing issues with possible underachievement in integrating reading, writing and spelling skills, and I think you mentioned he's already been through a Lindamood Bell course? Please forgive me if I'm remembering anything incorrectly. My concern as a parent would be that there's more going on than straightforward dysgraphia - possibly dyslexia, possibly something else. It sounds like you are having a PPT meeting at school soon - I'd recommend you either request a full eval through school, or seek out private neuropsychologist testing. Your previous posts mention having had an ed-psych eval at 6 that found no challenges other than EG, but now that 2-3 years have passed and your ds has been at school, there's more info to go on at a neuropsych eval. I'd also want to be sure that behavioral questionnaires and developmental history interview were included in the eval, and those are things that sometimes aren't included in an "ed psych" eval.
If you're interested in where my opinion comes from, I have a 14 year old who is 2e with dysgraphia and a 10 year old who is 2e with a disability impacting associative memory which in turn impacts her ability to read. She's not dyslexic in the classical sense, but faces many of the same struggles dyslexic students face. With both of my children, I had no idea what the *real* issue was behind their academic underachievement until they had full neuropsych exams - I was totally guessing entirely the wrong thing going into those exams. If I'd only had them tested for what I thought was going on, we wouldn't have found appropriate accommodation and remediation strategies. I think I've also mentioned on a previous post - my EG ds was first tested at 5 (almost 6) for a gifted program, and no LDs etc were found - but the subtest score patterns that were indicative of dysgraphia were absolutely there - the psychologist didn't recognize it as a challenge. Once he'd been in school for a few years, there was no question that he was challenged by *something*, so with the second go-round of testing being with a neuropsychologist, and going in with examples of issues such from his schoolwork, it was much a much clearer path to diagnosing the challenge.
If you're asking about testing for dysgraphia because you've already had the PPT team meeting and the school is going to do an evaluation, ask *your school staff* what tests they can use to evaluate written expression, handwriting legibility, handwriting speed, fine motor strength and dexterity etc.
Best wishes,
polarbear
