If you see what I mean
My youngest daughter (7 next week) is being assessed for Dyspraxia at the moment.
She has a number of difficulties in day to day life with her learning, her co-ordination, spatial awareness, balance, sensory, etc, etc. She completely fits with a diagnosis of Dyspraxia.
She was initially assessed on an informal basis by an Ed Psych who works with our school. DD has already received a lot of help through school, but due to various reasons (monetary and an utterly useless LEA mostly), the school would prefer the formal statementing route.
She had her assessment with an OT/Physio in a health centre setting where she did everything she was supposed to do, so there's no physical reason why she can't do these things so they've discharged her
It was done under very test-like conditions in a very quiet room, with an audience (me, DH, OT, Physio), where she was fully focussed and concentrating on the tasks she was asked to do, so for example, she was asked to run so they could watch her, except she was running down a fairly narrow corridor, with everyone watching and she was totally concentrating on the task, so of course, she did it fine.
The problems start, when she's running in more natural conditions - i.e. running around in the playground with her friends and she falls over a lot, runs into things a lot, trips over her own feet or her friends, if she's running around at home she'll trip over the sideboard in the living room (the same sideboard that's been there for 10 years) or fall down the stairs, etc, etc
She was asked to colour in a star shape, again, she was fully concentrating and focussed on the task in a quiet room with only 4 other people in it, so she did it fine.
But at school, in a classroom with 20 other children, she gets distracted, loses concentration, fidgets about on her chair, stands up, sits down, fiddles with her pencil and generally forgets what she's supposed to be doing
Generally, her concentration span is very short, but in the assessment they did a lot of very short (apart from the colouring in tasks, they were generally timed for 10 or 20 seconds), very different activities so it appears to them that her concentration is OK, but in her more natural setting (for example, guided reading or an art activity at school) she is unable to concentrate for any period of time
Then there were things like catching a ball (she caught 1 ball out of 10 throws, and that was by pulling it up to her chest if you see what I mean), standing on one leg for 10 seconds (she managed 2) throwing a ball at a target (didn't hit it at all out of 10 throws), hopping for 10 seconds (managed 2 hops before falling over), bouncing a ball (didn't manage to bounce it at all), but she was able to ride a bike (she can ride a bike, but again, under more natural conditions she is fine when she's fully concentrating, but as soon as her attention wanders, she falls off or veers off into bushes), she could run fairly straight (albeit guided by the walls of a narrow corridor).
So yes, physically, there's no reason why she can't do this stuff, so they've discharged her.
They didn't look at any of the sensory things - hatred of certain clothes because they're 'spikey', won't sit on our new sofa as she hates the feel of the fabric (we've just gone from a knackered old leather sofa, to a new soft fabric one) hatred of loud noises (hates fireworks, loud music), hatred of busy places, hates going on holiday or out for the day or anything out of routine - if I take the kids to the park, or to the shop for an icecream on the way home from school she completely freaks out, or any of her other foibles. Coupled with all the other stuff, our SENCo felt they were flags for dyspraxia and should be investigated, but they weren't really interested.
So, we've been going through the report with her teacher, her SENCo and the Ed Psych who did the initial informal assessment and they completely disagree with the whole report and want another assessment done at school, and for her to be officially referred to the Ed. Psych.
Sorry, that's so long, but there are all sorts of difficulties and I wanted to give as much information as possible.
I'm totally fed up with fighting for this, and have no idea what to do next.
Thanks!