Help me understand this jargon please...

[lostinwales]

I'm hoping that more experienced mum's out there may be able to understand the letter that came about my son this morning. DS1 is a gorgeous 9 year old, although it has always been apparent he's a little different from his peers I haven't made a big deal of this as I love him exactly as he is and don't want to make him feel he's 'wrong'. But his school feel that he isn't achieving as he can as in some areas he's super intelligent. Anyway year of so into Dr's, OT's etc and we're looking at a tentative diagnosis of Dyspraxia/ADHD/ASD, or as we like to think he's wired differently, but perfectly for him.

So the crux of this ramble is a letter today which outlines all this and I'm perfectly happy with but I want to understand what the Dr is talking about! He's written;

He was Fog test (??) stongly positive. He was able to walk on his heels and toes but there was significant motor overflow.

In the neurology, he was hypotonic.There was hyper-extensible elbow joints and knee joints. All reflexes were normal and plantar reflexes were flexor. Gower was negative however. (??)

If anyone can tell me what any of this means I would be happy, I'm not worried just interested, thanks.

The Fogg test is part of the neurological test - children with a positive Fogg test find it difficult to walk on the outside of the feet or on their heels; also the child will often lift up high or flap their arms when attempting to walk on their heels or sides of the feet. (I think this is what he meant by 'motor overflow'). It can indicate a neurological delay or disorder.

Hypotonia means low tone, in that his muscles are a little floppy which is probably why his joints are very bendy. If the Gower test is positive it means that the child has difficulty getting up unaided from lying or sitting on the floor, and can indicate a muscle weakness in the hips or thighs.

Hope that's helpful

sorry i have no idea of this at all but bumping up so others see and might be able to help

Thank you Singed that is incredibly helpful, makes perfect sense to me now, it does describe my dear boy perfectly. And thank you for the bump, this is a whole new world I'm staggering into and I find it all a bit confusing. It dosen't make any difference really as using different terms to describe him dosen't change my lovely boy, but seeing it in black and white makes me sad somehow, would have much preferred them to tell me school was making a fuss about nothing. Bless him, I guess it means his hopes of winning the Tour de France one day are probably not feasable!