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Who can diagnose dyspraxia?

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slowreadingprogress · 06/07/2009 23:20

apologies if this has been asked before - it's late and I need to go to bed rather than search archives!

We've jsut had a somewhat disappointing assessment with an independent ed.psych re DS' possible dyslexia.

He's raised possibility of dyspraxia, which I told him we'd had assessed by a paediatrician last year, who discounted the possibility.

He seemed to snort at this and suggested instead we see a private occupational therapist.

I'm happy to bankrupt us to do this if it will help DS but is an OT qualified to diagnose? More so than a paediatrician? I find it hard to believe this and am therefore not sure whether to trust this man's advice

TIA.

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ChopsTheDuck · 07/07/2009 08:32

I don't think the OT could diagnose themselves, but what you would need to do is see the OT for the ABC Movement battery test, which would pretty much give you a certain answer as to whether or not there is dyspraxia. It calculates percentiles for motor control.
The paed then should dx if necessary on the basis of those test results. So you would still need to go back to the paed again.

I find it a bit that the paed discounted the possibility, because really it would be up to the OT to do that.

Do yuou think he may be dyspraxic? Have you looked at the dyspraxia foundation website here

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5inthebed · 07/07/2009 09:12

We went to Ds2's paed in April because we thought he had dyspraxia. Paed agreed he was showing signs of it, but he couldn't officially dx it. We had to get a referral to Ds2's OT at school. Still waiting for an appointment though! As far as I know, its the OT who DX's it, with paed agreeing it.

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slowreadingprogress · 07/07/2009 21:14

thank you two very much! OK that does sound like he was right then. i guess it's private OT for us. (We've been on the waiting list for NHS for 18 months and yes I have complained!)

TBH i don't think he has got dyspraxia but I will of course leave it to the proper people to diagnose. We were convinced he was dyslexic as he showed ALL the signs as far as we were concerned but apparently not - so whaddo we know!!!