A silly question about dyslexia

[notnowmaybelater]

My 8 year old is currently going through an assessment process due to some concerns at school. So far he's been seen by a specialist paediatrician and an occupational therapist specialising in diagnosis, and the paediatrician scheduled two assessment appointments with a psychologist, while the occupational therapist is recommending occupational therapy initially for fine motor skills (handwriting and pencil grip being problematic, but she also wants attention addressed).

The paediatrician talked cautiously about dyslexia - he has various problems with writing including spelling and legibility as well as staying on the line. Verbally he is streets ahead of the written work he produces. He also has significant organisational issues in a non UK school system which has extremely high expectations of children's organisational skills by this point and a rather sink or swim, separate the goats from the sheep prevailing educational culture unless there's a diagnosis in place to legally enforce exceptions.

The psychologist appointments aren't until early March so we'll have more to go on then, but my question is:

Is dyslexia a likely diagnosis in a child with a lot of the features of dyslexia in terms of producing writing and of organisational issues, but who reads at an age appropriate average level and reads for pleasure voluntarily to a certain extent, and appears to read fairly well for meaning (I'm talking Tom Gates not Dickens...)?

I'd really appreciate any feedback from parents of dyslexic children!

Dyslexia is always a possibility, but the motor skills and organisational issues possibly fit better with dyspraxia, although you will probably find that the two are often linked together, along with other traits. My daughter (10) has dyspraxia (DCD) and a lot of the things you've mentioned above ring bells with her diagnosis.

My other daughter (16) most probably has dyslexia - no formal diagnosis as the school wouldn't go that far! But is more organised, no motor skills issues, but can't read well and has difficulty grasping concepts of written language.

You don't need a formal diagnosis to get some support from the school - even without a diagnosis, my eldest daughter has still qualified to get the extra 25% time for exams - it does help when pushing the school to actually do something though. Good luck with your appointments in March, I hope they go well.

Throgglesprocket thank you so much, I didn't think anyone was going to reply!

DS's gross motor skills are extremely good, considerably better than average (he does martial arts) which is why I don't think he's dyspraxic. His fine motor skills are way below average, but gross motor skills at the opposite end of the spectrum.

Is it possible for dyspraxia to impact only fine motor and organisational skills but not gross motor skills?

He's a funny little boy and doesn't fit any obvious profile. I thought it was just him, he's a bit different but incredibly loving, imaginative, talkative, curious... I thought he was fine but his teacher started calling me saying he's always sad at school - he isn't at home, he's the happiest child you could wish for!

I've started the assessment process because unfortunately he won't get any support here without a diagnosis - we don't live in the UK. He'll just fail to get the grades needed for academic secondary school and be put on a route to leave school with a leaving certificate after year 9. That's not the end of the word but I know he's as clever as his siblings and don't want his options limited by failing to get to the bottom of his problems. There are absolutely no exceptions or differentiation of any kind without a diagnosis here.

On the upside assessment is fairly easy to access.

I did see him from a slightly different perspective at the two assessments we've been to and have realised that some of his behaviour, whilst very sweet and entertaining to me, actually strikes strangers as a bit odd (after directly interviewing and doing a few generic tests with him at the initial assessment the paediatrician told him that he could draw while she talked to me as it's be a bit boring for him - to an adult this was clearly still part of the assessment, but DS didn't twig, thanked her politely, put his backpack on, did a crab impression (totally silently) complete with hands as claws to cross the room sideways and took up position on his tummy under the examination couch in the room to draw while pretending to be a crab in an underwater cave... It was all completely silent and as I know DS I knew what was going on in his imagination and that as he was keeping silent he would think he wasn't distracting or interrupting - we'd already been sitting at a table with the paediatrician at least 45 minutes so he'd been concentrating for that long and wanted a change - but then I caught a glimpse of the paediatrician's startled face).

I've always said he doesn't have attention issues, in the context of being 8, but maybe he does...

It's entirely possible that the martial arts have helped with the gross motor skills, as it was recommended by the OT that my daughter started Taekwondo to help improve her motor skills, and since taking it up about 18 months ago it has definitely helped - her balance has improved greatly and if she does fall, she's more likely to land on her feet so to speak, so if your son has been doing martial arts for quite a while it is possible that this has helped his gross motor skills improve.

Kids are funny, and my daughter definitely does have attention issues - always away with the fairies! We're currently looking into a diagnosis of ADHD for her, but it's a long process.

Maybe that is it, he's been doing them since he was 5. I never remember him being remotely clumsy though - he was like a little spider monkey as a toddler, always climbing everything...

I've just had a note from his teacher about bad behaviour in art, which is taught by a different teacher. I think he's starting to misbehave to deflect from the fine motor skills problems, and his slower than average messy writing which makes his hand hurt is causing him problems keeping up in ordinary lessons.

Maybe it is dyspraxia - what do you do with your dyspraxic daughter for the fine motor skills and organisation?

My 8yo has finally been diagnosed with dyslexia and dyspraxia (&ASD) in the last 6 months or so.

He's not "clumsy" but can struggle with symmetry of motion. He's risk adverse too (ASD trait) so doesn't tend to try physical movements unless he is confident of success. We've done swimming since babyhood, and classes like Gymnastics and Karate. He wasn't particularly forward on gross motor and now functions fairly unremarkably. He struggles to process team sports and has lost interest in football, but he was OK at it... a bit slow in response but a decent enough runner to not be embarrasing

His fine motor skills for manipulating stationery and cutlery are poor and he finds it painful. He's good with Lego, but that's moving his hands rather than holding a static position.

His reading ability is age appropriate following a slow start. The turning point was a visual stress test and identifying the right overlay. He reads for pleasure on his list of interest topics. He tends to read at an easier level than his potential, but I'm just pleased that he reads.

Right from the start, his literacy skills have been way out of sync with his general knowledge and memory for information.

That's really interesting ShinyGiratina thank you for posting.

It's interesting that your child with dyslexia does read for pleasure, so ds reading at a roughly average level doesn't rule out dyslexia.

I'm inclined to think ds is more likely to have dyslexia than dyspraxia. He was the opposite of risk averse as a small child and I was constantly having to grab him from my head height as he climbed up anything vertical - book shelves, slides, trees, stage lighting rigs, door frames, as soon as he could crawl he crawled upwards rather than along at every opportunity...

Like your son he hates football though - my older children both play football and it's a massive part of community life and "belonging" where we are but the youngest hates it, which is why we tried taekwondo, which he loves. His teacher thinks he doesn't like playing which shocked me, but she turns out to have a very rigid idea of what playing is (group team games with set rules) and DS plays for hours and hours alone and with like minded friends, but entirely fantasy/ imagination based games which seem infinitely more creative and interesting to me too!

Perhaps he just has a collection of things needing addressing (fine motor skills problems, organisational issues, possibly some issue with attention or understanding expected behaviour - as in not going under furniture to draw but staying at the table - although he is very aware of others and very considerate in his own way...)