Fine motor delay or within normal range?

[wishIwasonholiday10]

I filled out the 3 year ASQ form and my DD scored poorly in fine motor. Most of the questions in this section were about being able to draw lines or circles deliberately and hold a pencil properly but DD can only draw scribbles so far and still grips crayons in her fist. Was anyone else’s just turned 3 year old similar but didn’t turn out to have longer term problems with fine motor skills? I’m quite worried she won’t be ready for school in a years time. She also can’t dress herself or pull down her leggings when we use the potty although I’m not sure if this comes under fine or gross motor. She can however feed herself with a fork and spoon, pick up small objects and seems to get on fine while playing (she can build things with duplo and magnet tiles for example).

Does this sound like a fine motor delay? She already has a gross motor delay due to having low muscle tone but no-one has really assessed her fine motor skills and I know gross and fine motor skills can be connected. She doesn’t appear to heave speech or cognitive delays so it’s not a case of global delay.

They won't consider it until age 5 at least but dyspraxia can present as difficulties in both gross and fine motor delays (however using cutlery well is a good sign) do they get occupational therapy or physiotherapy for their low muscle tone could you bring your concerns up with them?

Thanks for the response. We are only with physio at the moment but they said it’s better for occupational therapy to assess fine motor skills. The physio is trying to refer us but OT turned down the initial referral.

I have wondered about dyspraxia. As it stands at the moment the neurologist thinks it might be neurological and has referred us for genetic testing and an MRI.

Dyspraxia is only diagnosed when they ve ruled out everything else so hopefully the neurologist finds you answers but then it's a good argument for an OT referral if they don't. OTs happen to be those whose opinion they need to consider a dyspraxia diagnosis so keep trying to get them to accept a referral in the meantime if they can.

She sounds fine at the moment, try not to worry. Everyone learns to do things at differing times and stages. Leggings aren't very easy and neither are tights but we always give these to girls to cope with.

I’m mostly worrying as she will have to start school quite early due to being summer born. I agree leggings are maybe not the easiest clothes. I’ve always gone for leggings as she is tall and thin and joggers and other loose clothes tend to be too short by the time they fit around the waist without falling down. She won’t wear shorts or dresses at the moment as she keeps tripping over and scraping her knees.

My nephew was/is tall and thin and did a lot of tripping. Longer limbs are harder to coordinate. I wasn't criticising your choice of leggings, sorry if it came over that way. Maybe she will turn out to have dyspraxia, but if you explain your concerns to her teacher I'm sure they'll keep an eye out for her and they're generally quite experienced in reception classes.