Thanks again everyone. I have been on the internet for the last four hours trying to find more information about the dyspraxia and sensory issues and looking for a physical therapist who is also certified in sensory integration. I haven't had any luck yet. When I called the first place on my list, I asked the receptionist if they had any therapists with experience in working with kids with motor dyspraxia and sensory integration dysfunction. She told me to hold on, laid the phone down so I could hear her talk to one of the other people in the office and said "There's a woman on the phone whose kid has motor "dys-func-tia" or something that I have never even heard of--can you talk to her? I then got to talk to someone who told me there might be someone at another location who could help him about a 40 minute drive from us. I called that location and was given a phone number and I left a message several hours ago.
I can't find any place near us that offers interactive metronome or therapeutic listening.
There are no support groups anywhere near us and I am wondering how rare this is and especially the combination of verbally gifted with motor dyspraxia. I wonder why I can only find support groups in other countries. It seems like nobody even knows what dyspraxia is in this country.
I am trying to figure out what kinds of problems my son might have in the future because of the problems with handwriting and drawing and his lack of ability in jigsaw puzzles and the motor planning/motor memory problems. My son doesn't think the dyspraxia will have that much impact on his life when he is an adult because he can compensate for most of it. It just slows him down. He still tries to argue his way out of doing things that require motor skills. He still wants to know why I insist that he use rudimentary writing tools when so much technology is available to help with his problems. He says he would rather spend more time increasing his typing speed. He says he will use a calculator when he is an adult and is more likely to be carrying a calculator with him than graph paper when he needs to do a math problem in real life. He thinks I am wasting his time making him write out problems when he can get the right answer without writing out every little thing. He wants to go to college but he says he will not take a lot of higher level math classes. He knows there are some degrees that do not require a lot of higher level math. I think geometry will be a problem for him but he says he doesn't expect to go into anything that requires geometry and when I think about it, I never used geometry after high school.
I told him he needs to be able to write well enough to fill out job applications in the future and he already knows that a lot of job applications are done online now because his sister is looking for a job and she talks to him every day about it. He both encourages her and gets on her about procrastinating. She in turn shares her sisterly advice and talks to him about getting busy on writing his "excuse book."
I wish I could find one person with an older child like mine who has found the answers I am looking for. I don't believe it is too late for therapy. I just need to find someone who can provide a comprehensive physical therapy/sensory integration therapy plan and it is not easy to do when you live in a small town like mine.
