As he entered kindergarten, my son seemed like an average kid. He was a little young (July birthday) and had a slight “scissoring skills” deficit.
By the end of 1st grade, his teacher and I both had earned grey hairs.
She also deserved a nomination for teacher of the year, but I was too much of a newbie to know how to nominate her. Josh was often in trouble, had problems sitting still, and had handwriting problems. Ironically, his lousy handwriting held the key to what has going on.
At the end of the school year, we took him to be evaluated for occupational therapy for his handwriting and fine-motor “deficits.” We were shocked to hear that Joshua’s problem wasn’t a fine motor problem at all. It began at his core.
He had a core-muscle strength problem, which meant to stay upright in the classroom, he would wrap his legs around the chair legs and tighten his elbows in to his torso. He didn’t stabilize his paper as he wrote because that would require releasing his elbows. In short, sitting in a chair for eight hours a day was exhausting. That squeezed in stance was what caused the handwriting issues.
Testing him, Becky, our pediatric physical therapist and new-found hero, observed that he also had problems with crossing his midline, bi-lateral movements, and motor planning. (Her colleague, an occupational therapist also had diagnoses, but that’s part 2.)
All this information about our child whom we thought had a simple handwriting issue was overwhelming. Everyone wants their child to be perfectly healthy (if not perfection itself), and we were no different. Anxiety set in.
On the other hand, we were relieved. We suddenly understood our child much better. Somewhere deep inside, we had wondered why Joshie was the only one that couldn’t do a jumping jack (bi-lateral exercise). We had also scratched our heads at his bicycle riding attempts. He was able to steer the bike and pedal the bike, but not simultaneously. A motor-planning problem explained that, as well as his inability to tie his shoelaces.
I often wonder if Joshua would have just been written off as an un-athletic, klutzy kid, if we hadn’t taken him to that evaluation. In the scheme of things, a seven-year-old’s handwriting isn’t a life or death problem. (Yay, for once being a worrier was helpful!)
Josh was in physical therapy for a couple of years, at least. He made great progress during that time. We lost track of Becky. I wish I could find her to update her. Joshua, now a junior in high school, is athletic, and has played Premier and JV soccer and earned a varsity letter in tennis. I think she’d be proud.
(c) Laura Hedgecock 2013
