I spoke with the school psychologist and teacher today, and it appears their primary concern is ds's lack of focus. Apparently, he's off task more than he's on task. The psychologist said it was pretty excessive when she observed, and the teacher said that was actually a good day. Usually it's worse. So, I guess now we have to be open to the probability that the attention issues are due to more than just lack of challenge. DS seems to be sufficiently challenged at this point, and he's still having attention problems. They're seeing it across subjects and activities, even in PE. I see it at home as well (getting dressed, eating dinner, homework). HE is even complaining about not being able to stay focused long enough to get anything done. It's finally started affecting him academically and emotionally, which has always been our determining factor for assessing for possible ADHD. Going with this line of thinking, I talked with DS about the writing again, and he was able to explain that while he sometimes has trouble forming the letter and determining the correct size and spacing, mostly he just loses track of what he's writing. Therefore, it takes him a loooooonnnnngggg time to complete one word, and this becomes overwhelming.
The school would like to do some more observation, maybe get an OT eval to look at the handwriting, and then go from there. I think I'd like to just go ahead and get a comprehensive developmental assessment with a developmental pediatrician. I want to know if there's underlying ADHD because this will affect everything. I know of a really good doctor, and it looks like it's time to bite the bullet and have the evaluation done. It could be worse, right?
On a positive note, DS said today went much better than expected. ; )
Thanks for all the advice and support!
