Finally a Diagnosis

For many years now, Eric and I have been vigilantly pursuing answers as to why Quinlan has so much trouble with some every day tasks, writing, cutting with scissors and staying organized.  Tasks that his younger sister can do easily.  We have been told that he is 18 months behind his actual age, or that he is a boy and boys do things slower.  We have also been told by people who are supposed to recognize issues that he is just lazy and holds his pencil too tight!   Finally after struggling for so long we were able to take him for a full psychometric testing.   We met with the psychologist on Nov 17th and she agreed that there were warning signs and flags going up that there were some learning issues presenting.  Quinlan went for 4 hours of testing (broken up over 2 days).  On Wednesday January 6th we met again with the psychologist who gave us her findings.  Quinlan has been diagnosed with a Disorder of Written Expression due to multiple contributing factors.  A major component of the diagnosis is a features of a visual cortex based dyslexia.  Although it can't be fully diagnosed until he is 9 years of age, he scored lower then then first percentile on the dyslexia test. Quinlan has fine motor skill problems as well due to hyper mobile joints. Quinlan has also been found to be of high intelligence, he scored in the top 25th percentile, showing high average to superior intellect.  He just can't get it out on paper!   With our new found knowledge, we are able to have an Education plan in place to help Quinn learn and stay on target with his peers.  This will include computers and software, tests done orally, and/or a scibe.   We are excited to learn more about this complex learning disorder and to do what we need for him.