Can a LD, dysgraphia, left/right brain confusion and fine/gross motor skills delays all be related?

Question

My 6 year old son has speech/language retrieval delays, red signs for dysgraphia, fine/gross motor skills delay along with left/right brain confussion. It has been suggested that a large number of children with the retrieval issues also have dysgraphia. The neurophysicologist suggested the motor skill problem could be contributing to the dysgraphia. Could the dominance issue play a part in the LD?

While I know that each one of these issues make my child SPECIAL and they will not be cured. I wonder if OT could actually play a large part in helping find the coping skills for every one of the issues. I am a true believer that at 6 his brain is still very plyable and with the right theropys we could form new connections and pathways in the brain. Any ideas or theroys?

Answer 1

yes-

DYSGRAPHIA is the inability to write-not an inability to speak-The former speech therapist must be thinking of somethign else...

Ther eis a theory that LD results from teh hemispheres of the brain not being able to communicate with each other

one exercise is to do teh same thing with both hands at the same time (i.e draw circles/designs)

Answer 2

dysarthria= slurred speech

i think that the left/right brain confusion might mean that the two cerebral hemispheres are not interacting properly with each other via the corpus callosum. It is what connects the two halves of the brain for coordinated movement and higher order functions. If there is disruption of motor signals being delivered to the hands and arms then yes, the dysgraphia could be a result of the motor skill problem. OT could definitely improve your son's motor skills but not to the point where he would be cured (a reality you expressed in your question). And think about it this way, OT can't hurt esp since it provides stimulation and opportunity for cognitive learning, making new  memories and learned movements, and possibly could improve his QOL. I say go for it and good luck!

Answer 3

No.

Fine motor problems are fine motor problems. Dysgraphia is an expressive language disorder affecting written expression.

I have no clue what tests  the neuropsychologist used to determine left/right brain "confusion". The use of both hemispheres is actually a good thing; it will help the child to compensate for the language disorders by bringing in more pathways for adaptive functioning (this is actually why girls have better language skills, as they have more connections between the right and left hemispheres).

OT will be helpful not only for fine-motor integration, but also for sensory integration. ST will be necessary to address the dysgraphia.

No one is ever "cured" of  hard-wired language difficulties, including learning disabilities. The therapists teach the child methods for compensating for their problems.

Answer 4

The OT could definitely help with the fine/gross motor skills stuff. If his problems are in his arms they may be contributing to his dysgraphia as this is a problem with writing where  letters can be either overly sized or incorrectly spaced.

I'm not sure how the left/right brain confusion works (I can't find anything about it on the net) but if he's having problems with following print etc in the normal way- left to right and is instead reading it left to right (1st line), right to left (2nd line) etc then this may contribute to dysgraphia as it would affect the way he organises his writing.