Fine Motor Skills?

Brenda - posted on 11/06/2010

He does perfect everywhere else, which is why they can't officially give him therapy for his fine motor skills. His teacher says he does average on every other areas, but she expects more because of his reading ability. In fact, when they did listening comprehension the counselor had to hide the paper because instead of repeating back from memory he was reading it upside down off the paper.

Katherine - posted on 11/01/2010

Well geez, the child is reading at a 2nd grade level. Is he lacking anywhere else besides the pencil grip?

Brenda - posted on 10/24/2010

Actually, here they did a full comprehensive evaulation, including processing (where they read stories to him and asked him to repeat back what he had heard), as well as an examination by a speech pathologist. They even pulled him out for small group time to check for social emotional issues should they be present. The actually followed our state codes to the letter (I happen to be in the class where we are learning all about this process, lol). So they did do a check for everything. They said their Occupation therapist might keep working with him but they couldn't officially do anything for fine motor skills unless he was diagnosed with another disability along with it.

Geralyn - posted on 10/15/2010

Its a good idea to take a look at that issue to determine the existence of or rule out a processing difficulty where the message from the brain to the hand gets a bit scrambled and results in difficulties with fine motor. Some children have to focus so hard on the actual production of letters or shapes, etc., that it is a very arduous task compared to their peers. It has nothing to do with cognitive abilities or reading. The brain is so pliable at that age that occupational therapy may assist.

As far as the hearing test, you may want them to look specifically at auditory processing in addition to hearing. Auditory processing is basically how the brain processes what it hears. So in other words, there may be nothing wrong with his hearing, but there could be the presence of an auditory processing issue. That would be tested by an educational audiologist to really determine the existence of or rule out any issues. School districts usually have their speech therapists and/or school psychs test, but I think that you get a comprehensive assessment by an audiologist.

In my experience, at least here in California, the school districts do not do a very good job of testing auditory processing. Whatever is determined, its a good thing because early intervention is best. I hope that things work out for the best.... Its great that you are pursuing possible concerns so early.