I am new here and I am homeschooling my almost 10 year old son who was recently diagnosed with motor dyspraxia. Doctors had only told us that he had hypotonia and we thought that was all he had.

He is very smart but he had trouble learning the dances as fast as other kids in his musical theater class. He could memorize script faster than most of the other kids even though most of them were older. His movements seemed a little more awkward than other kids. His handwriting was sloppy in Kindergarten and he couldn't color in the lines very well and for this reason the teacher wanted him to go to a transitional first grade the next year (a year in between Kindergarten & first grade) even though he was reading at a 5th grade level at age 5 and had started reading at 2. We showed a first grade teacher at the school samples of his work and she said it was typical gifted boy handwriting and she thought he was probably highly gifted--like his half-brother. She told us we needed to homeschool.

So we homeschooled for about 2 hours a day and worked on handwriting thinking we could probably put him back in school the next year, but when he took an achievement test at the end of our first homeschooling year (the WIAT) it showed that he was grade levels ahead of his age mates so we had to continue homeschooling. I found out that my son would not be eligible for OT at school because it is only for kids who are in danger of failing and he could test above grade level. There is no requirement for an appropriate education for twice exceptional children in our state. I have written letters to my legislators about this and they won't even bother to answer my letters or emails.

My son does not fit in with kids his age physically or mentally. All of his friends, with the exception of one gifted boy his age, are older. He feels even more different because of his dyspraxia. We don't know anyone else with this. Nobody in our family has it. My sister-in-law seemed embarassed by the way he cut up his food when we ate at a retaurant together and she said something about it in front of him. People don't even try to understand and this sometimes makes me angry and I don't know what to say.