Early signs of learning problems

We had our first parent teacher conference for our kindergarten son last week.  He is 5 years old (turned five early Sept) and the kindergarten is 1/2 day in a good public school.  He attends k-care in the afternoon.  

His teacher is concerned because he has a reluctance to write or draw.  He is bright, has strong verbal and social skills, he cooperates in class routine, is normal or ahead in pre-reading skills like letter sounds, letter identification, really enjoys books, ect.  However, he has little tolerance for writing and drawing.  His drawings are primitive--a line or basic shapes.  He can write his letters--in fact I have noticed great improvement in this but complains about it, says he is tired, says it is too hard, that it is boring.  He has to be cajoled into these activities.  When he does them though, he is fairly competent or at least improving.  

His teacher thinks he is having problems in the graphomotor area.  I sort of agree because he has always hated drawing and if you ask him to draw something specific he doesn't know where to begin. She is also a little worried about his fine motor skills and will consult the school's OT for tips on this. She is also going to consult with the school's child study team for strategies on using his strengths (verbal skills, reading) to develop the weaknesses.

Based on observing him while volunteering in the classroom several times over the last few months, I notice that he he just wants to play which makes me think this could be a maturity issue.  He will also choose to play with the cars in the block area instead of the painting area.  The other kids though do seem further ahead in writing/drawing and he does seem to get overloaded when asked to do something involving writing.  But, when pushed enough he will write, color and cut with scissors fairly well.  

So, my question is, is this graphomotor functioning a red flag for learning disabilities?  Why would there be such a discrepancy between his overall intelligence and his writing ability?  What kinds of early intervention would make the most sense right now?

BTW, he is an eager learner, we limit tv and computer, we read to him all the time and take an ative interest in many things.  He is well behaved, gets at least 10 hours of sleep at night and eats well.  He has always been sort of a free-spirit--in his head alot, imaginative and funny.  He makes and keeps friends and does seem much more mature socially than academically.  Do you think this could just be an area slow to develop in him?

[Kevin Kennedy, Ph.D.]

It could very well be that this area is the one in which he is not as advanced as he is in the other areas of developemnt. This would not be unusual. Most children are not at precisely the same level of development in all spheres. Because it is possible that the behavior might represent some diffficulty in fine motor functioning (as you point out, in the graphomotor skills in particular), the OT input is a good idea. But I would proceed with an evaluation by the OT, not simply a consult re: tips for the classroom. At the very least, such an evaluation will provide a baseline that can serve as a point of comparison for the progress he will make over the course of the school year. Overall, it sounds like the teacher's approach to this is quite sound.

[tomel]

If I might ask what is graphomotor?

He may have visual tracking difficulty along with fine motor. We took my son to see a pediatric eye doctor and he gave us some visual tracking excercises to do.

When he holds a pen or crayon does he use the 3 finger tripod grasp?

Try getting a standing chalk board and have him use chalk. Its easier for kids to do things standing and the chalk gives them a different feeling , it also flows better than a crayon.
Ikea sells one for $20. We got that for my son and sure enough he writes letters and draws on that. Much more so than regular paper.

I highly doubt this means he has a learning disability.  

[Kevin Kennedy, Ph.D.]

Graphomotor is a term often used to mean 'handwriting'. The process of handwriting is complex, and involves a variety of sets of skills. Among them are visual-motor coordination, motor planning, kinesthetic feedback and orthographic coding (the process by which we can 'see in our mind's eye' letters and combinations of letters involved in writing - it's the mental representation of what the hand then produces when we write). So handwriting is not a simple task, and it's not unusual that many children experience some difficulty early on as they combine the various skills required to write by hand.

[Pum]

Have you had his eyes tested?  My cousin's little boy was also like this, giving up on drawing etc. very quickly and it turns out he needed glasses (I think he was seeing things on an angle).

Good luck.