Hi MissChief. It is really hard at the beginning isn't it ? He sounds very similar to my DD at his age, she is 9 now and in Year 4.
She was diagnosed towards the end of reception, she has hypermobility as well. I didn't tell her about the dyspraxia until she was 7ish, I just blamed it on her joints until then. I have been very lucky and have some fantastic friends who have been very supportive (dustystar's ears should be burning !). I remember feeling all over the place when I first found out, I had a small baby and would randomly burst into tears for a couple of months.
A few things on and things are very different. Whereas before the effects of her dyspraxia seemed to be present most of the time, this is really not the case any more and although we're both a bit apprehensive about her change to Middle School, it no longer seems the impossible task that it felt like before.
DD has been very lucky and received two courses of OT & physio at our local co-ordination clinic over the last few years which have helped her a lot with things like eating with knife and fork, zips, buttons etc. Like your DS her reading is very good but she has struggled a bit with maths and her writing was very very poor until recently.
Socially she has struggled a fair bit. She seems to find the unwritten social rules a bit tricky to master but is getting there now. Highlight of my week was on Monday when she was back at school having been off sick the week before. She was swept up in a gaggle of girls pleased to see her back, that wouldn't have happened before and made me realise how much progress she has made.
What seems to have helped is lots of friends back after school and during the holidays. She also did drama for a bit, which I wouldn't have thought of her doing, but she absolutely loved it and it really helped her confidence. She has also been having piano lessons for the last couple of years which helps her co-ordination and gives an auditory feed back to the amount of pressure exerted, which I think has helped her writing.
One thing I have found is that she does get pretty tired as it's more effort for her to do things at school than for the others. I've had a policy of standing back at home pretty much and it's only the end of Year 3 where I started to make sure homework was done properly. Until then I backed off unless she wanted to do it. Luckily her teachers have been understanding about that.
I've made sure things are as easy for her as possible eg lunch box easy to open, duffle coat to avoid zip problem. At school she did have an IEP until last year and still has a writing board and triangular pen. I've sorted her room out so everything has a place and she knows where everything is, she seems to cope better if things are more orderly.
Sorry I've burbled on for ages. I hope some of it has been helpful. I know it seems really daunting to be possibly heading towards a diagnosis but for us it was the key to things getting more sorted. It has taken a fair bit of work and I'm sure there will be more to come, but I am confident that when she gets to 18 you really wouldn't have any idea of the problems she had at school during the first few years, I bet your son will be the same.