Has paed assesment today - not dyspraxia

[mrsbaffled]

As the title says, DS (7) had his paed assessment today. She was lovely and thorough. She has identified he is well below average for motor planning and fine motor control, but not so bad as to warrant a dx of dyspraxia. She reckons he is in the bracket of children who should be able to work on his skills and see an improvement. This is good! Hopefully we can work on this before the frustration he experiences becomes too bad.

She has recommended we get some caring cutlery, and we will get an OT kit (not 1-1 with OT) which contains books that we have to work through with him over 2 terms.

His specific problem is writing and yes, he has hypermobile elbows, but this is probably not causing the problem, so she will arrange for a specialist teacher to observe him in the classroom. She is going to call his teacher this week for a long chat too.

So, no real answers yet...

Has an OT assessed him?

No. Just paed.

She said we would get this kit, and if that doesn't help, only then would we get to see OT 1-1....

You can self refer to a OT usually in most areas.

Agree with wasuup3000 - self refer to OT. List the areas of concern. Although DS already had a dx of dyspraxia from a paed (he had used an OT assessment to guide him), very little help was offered. After being 'signed off' from OT as he had made improvements, I asked by letter off my own back for another assessment as he still has major issues. It took a while, but they did a SIPT (sensory integration and praxis test) which is a diagnostic test. It identified the type of dyspraxia that he has, and can be far more specific in the areas to work on.
Don't be put off because there has been improvement and has a base to work from. My DS is academically bright and more than keeps educational pace with his peers - but he still can't do his trousers up. You just have to keep plugging away until you get the help you need.
Tbh, i find it quite strange that the paed didn't dx without having an OT assessment first to guide.

Do you think it's a regional thing? A friend got a dx of dyspraxia on the first meeting with paed....I just assumed that THEY (paeds) were the ones to diagnose. She did a lot of detailed gross and fine motor tests like jumping down stairs and over blocks and getting him to write and copy things etc etc etc.

From what I understand, most paeds rely on the additional OT/Physio reports to back up their dx. Have you checked what the specialism of this paediatrician is?
It could be regional as well. You could be 1 street away from another pct in this area and get a completely different level of service - shameful