how important it is for me to KNOW FOR SURE
This is what I have been struggling with for the last month. I have decided FOR SURE that my son has dysgraphia. Do I need to find out which type? Why? I met with his teacher today about next year (luckily the same teacher again!) and he will be typing everything in class and at home. If that works, hurrah! The teacher mentioned the difference in the depth of written expression between boys and girls (generally) at this age. A lot of the 5th grade boys had very sophisticated ideas about the novel they are reading when talking about it, but got a lot less down on the page.
The spelling really does sound dyslexic, but there are so many LD's out there that might cause this. A friend's daughter had spelling difficulties, but also read just at grade level, was not a huge reader like the rest of the family. The Mom was convinced something wasn't right and had her tested for the convergence insufficiency. She did therapy at the Drs (about $3000.00 I think,) and it worked. The words don't jump around on the page anymore. It is unusual to find this in an advanced reader, but I have read that it does show up occasionally in kids who read well and a lot.
I don't know anything about the PAL, so can't help you there.
I am sure that perfectionism can cause a lot of anxiety and if the writing is even a little hard as opposed to a lot hard, the perfectionism piece can cause someone to give up more quickly.
Homeschooling sounds great right now!
