Spatial Dysgraphia/Neurodivergent Diagnosis, thanks to this community!

Parents Forum
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I just wanted to send a big thank you to the CC community, and everybody who contributes!

I can’t remember the post that triggered my action, I think it may have been one of the GPA 3.0-3.4 communities, which then lead me to the learning difference community, but things started to fall into place. I had always believed my son to be super smart, but with extremely messy handwriting. He would write away from the margins, write out of the lines, have difficulty drawing simple shapes and graphing in math. When he was younger I thought that it was because he was a boy. As he got older, I thought he was lazy. Not trying hard enough. Wanted to rush his work so that he could play his video games. I was so wrong!!

This past sophomore year, his grades in math and French were dropping to a B. This may not seem to be a big deal, but I just knew he could do better, and he was getting frustrated with test results. In math for example, he knew the answers, but the teacher could not understand the work that he was showing. It was all over the place. He particularly could not plot his answers accurately, and he was losing points. Over the Easter break, after reading a post on CC, I looked at the work in his folders, and knew it was dysgraphia. After more research, I sent them to the school counseler/learning director, who agreed with my assessment and recommended an educational diagnostician. He spent Monday and Tuesday being thoroughly assessed. We do not have the full detailed report yet with recommended accommodations, but he has a confirmed diagnosis of spatial dysgraphia, ADHD inattentive presentation (formerly ADD), and an IQ in the top 2% . I believe that his intelligence meant that he had slipped through the cracks at school, but I should have trusted my gut long before now.

I wish that I had listened to my gut sooner, and tested him when he was younger. It would have saved many frustrations, arguments and tears with him. The brain is amazing, and to understand how differently it can work amongst us all is fascinating. If you are reading this, and you have a feeling about your kid, please do not hesitate to listen to your gut and get professional testing and diagnosis.

I feel so much better now, and so does my son, having a diagnosis, and understanding his brain. Thankyou CC community!

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Thank you so much for sharing your story. Wishing your son the best as he learns how he can learn strategies and be best supported for success. The mind IS an amazing thing, and it can work wondrously, even if not always in the same way for all people.

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Thank you :blush:

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Welcome to the wonderful world of parenting a twice-exceptional child! Many super smart kids who are neurodivergent, especially ADHD, go undiagnosed, because they can still function at normal levels. However, parents, and sometimes the kids, know that the kid is super smart, and are frustrated that they are underachieving, relative to how smart they are.

ADHD inattentive presentation is very easy to miss. We tend to think of ADHD as being associated with hyperactivity, and also expect really smart kids to be off in their own world a lot.

Our kid was only diagnosed as being ADHD (inattentive) in college because she also was dealing with anxiety, so between being smart, and assuming that many things were related to anxiety, even her therapist (who was great) missed it.

So you’re doing really well at getting a diagnosis in high school.

It took me over 50 years to finally get diagnosed…

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Thankyou for your response! That is EXACTLY it. He has been masking so well over the years, but recently has been feeling anxious about grades, which was one of the reasons I began researching. I have so much to learn about this fascinating topic.
High IQ, ADHD etc are hereditary traits apparently, and so during the testing process, both my husband and I recognised many things in ourselves too!
I am hopeful that his junior and senior year in high school will be better, and our college search will definitely focus on fit.

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One of the reasons that my ADHD was undiagnosed (aside from lack of general awareness at the period) was that both my parents thought that most of the symptoms were “normal”. To quote my mother a bit back “Isn’t everyone like that?”. The conversation went on like this

Me: “no, Mom, everyone is not like that. Who do you know is like that?”

Mother: “um… me?”

Thank you, Mother…

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Incoming Oxford students are told that as many as 1/3 of them will be dx’ed with an LD before they graduate: that they have been clever enough to get through so far, but now that they are in the deep end they might need some support. Tutors (professors) are taught flags- like your son’s handwriting- to watch for & will refer students to local testing. At least some of the colleges pay for everything: testing, useful equipment, skill development, etc.

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@MWolf this is the best thing I have read today! Hugs to your mom…

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Wow!