It sounds like you're on the right track longcut - getting an eval might help and certainly won't hurt anything
I just had never even heard of dysgraphia before reading this forum, and DH didn't know either
It's not something you hear much about - everyone knows what dyslexia is but I'd never ever heard of dysgraphia until our ds was diagnosed with it. He had all of the classic symptoms of dysgraphia but my dh and I had absolutely no idea that was the reason he was turning into an anxious kid who hated school and refused to do homework.
he seems to think good handwriting is overrated in the digital age.
My dh and I agree with that - and so do so many other parents even of nt kids that I know. I will never forget when my ds was way back in kindergarten years ago how many parents at the school thought that bothering to teach handwriting was obsolete because none of the parents ever used it. I also will never forget how much complaining his school did when we first suggested he use voice-to-text, yet every single person working in the school office was using it all the time! And that was long before everyone was talking to their phones to send email and text messages
Living in a high-tech age is a great thing for *adult* dysgraphics and also dysgraphic kids in terms of accommodations. The catch is that in spite of all the technology, students are still being required to rely on handwriting in school, even at the high school level there are still writing assignments that teachers require to be completed in handwriting. Another gotcha is that it's important to know that the sloppy handwriting has a root cause other than just laziness or whatever because there are inevitably going to be times a dysgraphic student has to write *something* and other kids or teachers might make a judgment about how much that student cares based on the appearance of their handwriting or even how smart they are. For instance, my ds has to be able to sign his names and occasionally write in his address on forms. If you knew nothing about him and just watched the slowness with which he writes his name and saw what his signature looks like compared to most 15 year olds... you might find yourself thinking he's not exactly a high IQ kid.
He also has vision issues (extremely farsighted, plus bifocals, but has never had a developmental vision exam), but I don't think that explains this.
It probably doesn't explain the handwriting issues, but there are two types of dysgraphia - one has a visual processing root, the other has a fine-motor root. Our ds has fine-motor dysgraphia, and you can see the impact in some other fine motor skills. There are also some types of dysgraphia where spelling isn't impacted - I don't remember the exact differentiation, but if you google around looking for types of dysgraphia you should be able to find a description easily. I think there's one with categories of dysgraphia on the NCLD website.
Some of his letters come from bottom, like a (which might look like an s or a loose g), his v and r look the same sometimes, and capitals and smalls are at different heights intermixed, spacing between letters and words is wide, hard to distinguish word space. He loves blank paper but then there's no clear baseline. And his written output is not equivalent to his verbal output.
This all sounds exactly like my dysgraphic ds, even the v and r looking alike
Our ds had OT for handwriting when he was in 3rd grade, and it helped with legibility, but it didn't really make a lasting difference.
With 'neatness' and depth starting to count more in presentations, it's become apparent that the writing doesn't match his understanding.
One thing you can do now that might be helpful - start collecting examples of the difference in his written and verbal output. It will be helpful to have these examples both to show whoever evaluates him and also when you are advocating for accommodations.
I guess it was difficult to reconcile the idea that he's 9 (am I just expecting too much) and very artistic, with the fact that he says he can't write differently and gets frustrated.
It is a weird thing, isn't it? But it makes sense when you look at how different writing and drawing really are - they aren't the same skill and don't draw on the same brain-connections. I also think that there's something to think through re links between dyslexia and dysgraphia - they tend to happen in common in some families (including my dh's family - ds isn't dyslexic but he has dyslexic cousins and also dysgraphic cousins). You'll find that there are quite a few professionals who feel that dyslexic people often tend to be visual-spatial thinkers and often talented artists. Our ds definitely is a visual-spatial thinker - he sees everything in his head as a picture. Our dyslexic dd also appears to be a visual thinker but not necessarily very talented at art. (I don't see pictures in my head. I'm not sure I "see" anything in my head lol!).
Hang in there!
polarbear
