Paediatician appointment tomorrow for medical assessment of motor issues

[LIZS]

ds (7) has an initial appointment tomorrow with the community paediatrician for a medical assessment of his motor skill issues/dyspraxic tendencies. What can we expect to happen and what should I ask ? Presumably he/she will take a case history but then what ? ds will feel better if he is prepared a little in advance. We already have reports from his old OT highlighting the practical difficulties he faces and hope to get a referral to a local OT from this.

tia for any advice

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Our ds(8) had an appointmant with the comm paed in May for exactely these reasons.Have to do bedtime now but will post later.where do you live,we are in suffolk.what sort of problems does your ds have?

Thanks Philly, would be grateful for your input and will check back later. ds has difficulties affecting both gross and fine motor skills, distractability, organisation and concentration/focus (finds it hard to start and finish work at school) and some sensory issues. He also has a visual tracking problem.

Gosh have you got my child,we don't really have a visual problem although the optician has said that the muscle tone in his eyes has not kept up with his ability to read etc so if tired he finds it hard to focus.
The paed appointment was the usual history etc,she tried to make ds do some simple puzzles etc and tried to get him to interact but I have to say he wasn't having any of it.I think we got off on the wrong foot because the first thing she tried to get him to do was to build a lego house while she"talked to Mum"this was red flag to a bull for him and he was completely uncoperative and by the end she was clearly wondering how he coped in mainstream school.However I found it quite helpful as we did discuss his alround dev rather than just school ot just the motor side etc. Aso the questions she asked did help me to look at things differntly.She asked me to send all his school and nursery reports to her and she wrote a report,she was clearly encouraged by the reports that he wasn't quite as anti social as first appeared.I would recommend taking a favorite toy perhaps as a taliking point and also something to keep him busy whilst you talk.
DS2 is hypertonic and she looked quite carefully at this getting him to do various excercises also he has a curve inwards on his back which we were quite concerned about ,but she was able to reassure us that this was postural but was related to muscle tone.She has referred him for physio for this,we were also hoping for an OT referral but the lists are closed here and no one is doing private OT so we are on the list to go on the list,but she did give us a booklet with some info in.
She suggested that we got an Ed psychs report done,which we had already been planning with the school and gave us some details of what she would find useful from this so we are going ahead with this,he is also having bloods done next week to check for chromosome abnormalities,we took some time to decide to go ahead with this but feel that to get him the best support we have to have as much info as possible,between you and me I think that the paed thinks that this is likely to be the explanantion.
We have not done this earlier mainly because he is borderline on most things and I really wanted hin to get a chance to develop at his pace but some of his problems have not resolved and now we feel we owe it to him to try to get some explanation for this or at least as much info as possible to enable him to reach his potential.It doesn't matter what the outcome is he will always be my special "w"
The paed has kept in touch and we have another appointment for when the blood tests are through.

Hope it goes well for you I would be interested to find out how things go as it sounds as if our circumstances are similar

Thank you, that is really very helpful.

We're in Surrey and have no idea how we would stand for OT etc yet. Like your son, ds appears borderline in so many areas. For many years we assumed he was just not a physically adept child but give him a book, train or lego and he'd be happy.

We have just put him into a private school to get the benefit of small class sizes and extra support as we felt he'd get lost in a class of 30. He doesn't behave badly and doesn't demand attention, just muddles along quietly somehow.

You've given us some good tips and food for thought. Will update afterwards, and probably have more questions. Thank you.

That is very much like us,ds is in a private school who are really supportive.Schooling wise his main problems are maths and anything spatial, as well as quite a short attention span and difficulty with complex instructions however the school have started a new learning mentor system and we have seen some real breakthroughs this last 6 months,he also learned to ride his bike over the Summer and his confidence has soared.Like you we have spent many years thinking he just was a bit clumsy etc but he walked and talked late and I think I always knew deep down that something wasn't quite right but we shall see.
He has a lovely teacher this term who said to dh yesterday that ds has a wonderful sense of self and that one day he will surprise us all and that is always how we have felt about him,but I do want to make sure that he can get any support or help that there is out there for him.
Good luck tomorrow

My ds has had assessments but at age three it was really just playing, observing and asking him to do things like climb a step, run and climb stairs. I do hate it when they expect you to talk about your child's weaknesses in front of them. I simply refuse to do it and either insist we talk on the phone before then, or ask to talk in a separate room.

may give him peg board to do or threading excercise and drawing

balancing jumping hopping throwing catching

DS is 10 and has dyspraxia and hypermobility

Hi Liz... Daughter had an appointment with the OT yesterday... we had an appointment with a pediatrician in august that refered us.. they both did the same tests really...
copying/tracing a picture, one without going over the edges
hopping in these squares
throwing a ball against a wall and catching the ball...
they weren't life skills... I think it would have been better if they had got daughter to put some socks on or open a bag of crisps...

Daughter has had a few problems with school lately and she has said that she hates herself and wants to kill herself... so she now has an appointment soon with a behavioural therapist, as well as the educational physycologest (sp) and the OT... (I am feeling very out of control of things at the moment)

The OT said yesterday that daughter has hypermobility. She has problems with her fine motor skills, spatial awareness, concentration, memory, maths...

your son sounds very much like my daughter
she also doesn't demand attention and just muddles through

Let us know how you get on tommorrow...

Rummum

How did it go Lizs?

Hi rummum,yes our kids do sound similar.

The appointment went ok, thank you all for thinking of us. The paed had taken the time to read carefully through the OT reports and administered what I think was a Griffiths test. ds did surprisingly well in some areas such as identifying left and right parts of body (although he hesitated), doing some shape puzzles against the clock and reversing a given sequence of numbers. He was less keen on the drawing and writing tasks although did a very creditable diamond.

Provisionally he rates ds at betwen a year and 18 months behind in locomotor and personal/social skills. He admitted that his biggest problem is a lack of balance and coordination and will refer us to OT although there may be a delay. He didn't think there was any underlying issue which was a relief. We should get his report next week giving more feedback as by that point ds and dd (had to take her along too) were getting so loud that it was hard to concentrate !

Agree with Philly that this all about enabling our kids to reach their potential, whatever that may be, and improving self esteem and confidence. Fortunately the paediatrician thinks ds' school is good at this.