Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Identification, Testing & Assessment Finally got the full report/scores

Don't quote me because I'll probably come back and delete, but DS has a dx of developmental coordination disorder. I think he may actually have a more serious issue like a mild case of ataxic cerebral palsy. His "motor coordination" score on the Beery VMI was like .02 percentile. So that's pretty bad. Yet I saw him do a game on the ipad yesterday where he had to press squares in order as they ran quickly across the screen (to play a song) and I think he did that as well as I could have which didn't make a lot of sense to me. His handwriting looks like preschool writing and never seems to get much better. Anyway, everyone thinks of the "cerebellum" as just having a motor function, but it goes far beyond that, it controls social skills, speech, hyperactive, inattentive or immature behavior, etc. I was reading about a kid who had damage to one part of his cerebellum and he developed speech issues that are very specific and rare that sound like DS's issues. It also controls things like eye contact. If you don't have a well functioning cerebellum eye contact is impossible. I think there is research showing ASD involves an underdeveloped cerebellum but other disorders are linked to it as well. DS was just run through a 3T MRI scanner to try to get a better look at it, so far all that we have found is a mild chiari malformation with a quick 5 min. scan. There are so many disorders that can cause some ASD type symptoms but the question is are there enough of those symptoms to warrant a diagnosis of ASD or is it something else. Have you ever seen a genetcist? There is all sorts of testing that can be done now that couldn't be done before. I was just reading our policy and it looked like testing on kids with ASD is covered.

edited to add, this comes from wikipedia. "They reported that patients with injury isolated to the cerebellum may demonstrate distractibility, hyperactivity, impulsiveness, disinhibition, anxiety, ritualistic and stereotypical behaviors, illogical thought and lack of empathy, aggression, irritability, ruminative and obsessive behaviors, dysphoria and depression, tactile defensiveness and sensory overload, apathy, childlike behavior, and inability to comprehend social boundaries and assign ulterior motives.[5]" Sounds like autism, right? But they are describing injury to a specific brain part.