DS2 being assessed tomorrow - what to expect?

[deemented]

DS2, age 6, was seen by a community pead about three months ago and was diagnosed with dyspraxia, as we thought. He also has dyslexia.

School have been very good with him, they give him one to one time in which they work on his fine motor skills and he's also in an exercise group twice a week which concentrate on his gross motor skills. He's also waiting to be assessed by an ed psych, with a view to getting a statement in place.

We've got an appointment tomorrow for him to see a group of people - an occupation therapist, a physio and another peadiatrician. I'm not quite sure what they are going to do, or what to expect - does anyone have any experience of this type of assessment at all?

Bump.

Anyone?

Hang on I'll link this in SN: Children as it is much busier.

I suspect the OT and physio will ask him to do physical things like walk in a straight line and touch his nose and crawl or whatever..... They'll also probably ask him to do a tiny bit of writing so that they can assess it (his name or age or something that doesn't bother him). They may also ask him to copy some stuff or do some drawings to assess him on that.

And the paed will just talk to him and to you.

None of it will be at all scary or threatening.

dee - my only experience of MDA is with the autism one - so won't be same as yours, as my other professionals were SALT and EP, not OT or physio and my DS hadn't seen a paed at all before the MDA. Hopefully the paed will have enough info from the comm paed that made the diagnosis that you won't have to repeat all the developmental history, so you will just be clarifying particular points of interest to this paed, but it's possible you will end up giving the same info twice I'm afraid. I imagine the OT and physio will be getting him to do some tasks, seeing how he moves etc, and that all will be v interested in how he manages at school and at home, and what support he gets in school. OT and physio may also recommend particular equipment/adaptation - cutlery with grips etc. I don't imagine that the OT/physio will focus on the literacy/dyslexia side of things, but the physical issues with writing etc.

When we had our MDA, the professionals had a brief huddle in private, then told us some conclusions verbally, with a written report following a few weeks later.

Thanks both.

Am not long back, and i'm feeling a bit... raw.. right now. The Pead couldn't make it, so it was just the physio and the OT. The physio was pleased with him, he could do everything she asked him to, albeit in his own unique way, but he got there.

The OT though was somewhat different. I hadn't realised just how much DS is struggling. He was assessed but the OT originally in 2008, just before he started nursery as he was prem and had had a moderate developmental delay. The OT today had his notes from the previous assessment and asked DS to do several tasks, write his name, coppy basic shapes and patterns... and DS didn't do very well at all. He has not moved on at all with his writing ability whatsoever, and it is still that of a three year old. When he writes he writes from his shoulder and is extremely heavy handed. The OT said that at the moment, his writing is about as good as it will ever realisticly get, and that the school needs to put in for I.T. support for him as he will need a keyboard to write with. I feel so sad for him - i knew his handwriting was very bad, but i never thought it wasn't anything that couldn't get better with practice. Stupid i know, but i feel so shocked and upset by this. The OT said that you can see him stuggling with what he understands and what he writes or tries to write down on paper. He struggled copying basic shapes and figures, and although he knew that they were wrong he couldn't grasp how to put them right.

So the upshot is that the OT will be going into school come September for a meeting with the SENCO and will be reccomending that DS has IT support ASAP. He'll also check that the school is doing a DCD course with him, and will also push forward the case for DS to be seen by the Ed Psych and be statemented.

I just feel so sad for DS and feel like somehow it's my fault, even though i know thats not the case. I feel like i've let him down.

Really sorry to hear all this.

I'm not surprised you're a bit raw!

You certainly haven't let him down. You've done very well to get him a dx so young......

It's great that OT are going into school and doing all that stuff - but I'm not sure if I'd believe her that your DS will never learn to write. He seems very young to be making such a pronouncement.

I'd be looking into private OT to get him to write...... The NHS can offer almost nothing, but if you've got the money you can do an awful lot more.......

My gut feeling is if he was so bad that he could never learn to write - you and school would have already known that.

there's more traffic over on the main SN children board, so you might want to post over there. Sorry it was all a bit grim Dee. As Indigo says, none of these professionals have a crystal ball, I wouldn't give up on the writing in the medium/long term, but hopefully if he can use IT that will be one less distraction when he's learning at school iyswim.

Yeah, i realised that, so have posted over there.

I know you're right. It seems such a big thing right now. I know it's not, not really in the grand scheme of things - he's healthy and happy and well.. just him, so i know i've a lot to be grateful for.

none of us ever set out on the parenting journey expecting to have to rope in doctors, specialists etc. its Ok to feel sore about it all, while still appreciating our child as they are.