Dyspraxia is more than just "clumsy child syndrome"

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Compared to other specific learning difficulties, major research into dyspraxia – or developmental coordination disorder (DCD) as it is more formally known – has only begun fairly recently.

DCD is the term used to diagnose children who have motor skills substantially below what is expected for their age. They are not lazy, clumsy or unintelligent – in fact, their intellectual ability is in line with the general population – but they do struggle with everyday tasks that require coordination.

Take a typical boy with DCD: he is a bright and capable 10-year-old boy, but he struggles to tie his shoe laces and needs help to fasten the buttons on his school shirt. He can’t ride a bike and no one passes him the ball when he plays sports. His teacher has told his parents that while he is a clever and very able student, his handwriting is slow and difficult to read. He finds it hard to keep up in class or to complete his homework – and his performance at school is deteriorating.




https://theconversation.com/dyspraxia-i ... life-66948

Poor and slow handwriting. Fairly clumsy and less than good balance. Was always the last or next to last chosen for sports teams at school. Took till I was nearly 14 to ride a bike. Difficulty keeping home tidy .Difficulty ironing clothes. Difficulty with manual/practical tasks. So much fits.

A facebook reply from my sister:

Dyspraxia, autistic traits, non verbal learning disorder,directional dyslexia ,and separate from those- aphantasia, are all things I can identify with.

A more holistic mental health service might have picked up on them, and got me the necessary help and support . It's probably too late now at nearly 60.

My DCD is so bad I even have trouble walking.

I can walk but tend to veer from side to side,as though drunk,when doing so. It's hard for me to walk a straight line.

These diagnosis didn't exist when you were a child. I hope that knowledge helps to soothe it a little. They didn't have any words to describe what was going on with you as a child. We simply hadn't developed our understanding of learning differences enough in the 60's and 70's.

You are probably right though the concept of dyspraxia(under different names) has been around for a while . http://www.dyspraxicfantastic.com/the_d ... _timeline/


I know my first school in Bangkok thought there were problems. I was tested for what was then called spastic in either 1962 or 63 when I was 5/6. The results were negative.
There were no further tests after that point and the matter of my "problems" was dropped.

The term spastic was used to describe what we now term cerebral palsy. I'm not sure how to describe the difference, but its very obvious once you work with kids who have both. People with CP generally have brain damage from birth trauma (or something that happened in the womb.) So they look a lot more like babies who have had a stroke or a bad hit to the head. The muscle weakness in specific areas and spasms make physical tasks difficult. Speech is often affected if the area of the brain that controls the tongue is affected. The presentation varies widely - everything from just one limb affected to all four affected to the point the person requires the use of a wheelchair. Remember that reporter who Trump made fun of? Kids who have cerebral palsy look more like him. (Although he has a different limb disorder. It looks like CP on the outside.)

Dyspraxia looks completely different. In this, you've got a kid who doesn't quiet know what to do with their limbs. They might also have weakness but its a more generalized weakness. There doesn't seem to be anything wrong with their limbs, but when they try to do tasks, they just don't do as well as you would expect from someone of their age and intelligence.

I am aware of that ,but think my first school went with CP as the best explanation of what they thought the problem to be . As you suggested knowledge on developmental problems was much more limited back then.
I wonder if a lot of people like me were tested for CP back then. Then when the results gave back negative there wasn't much consideration of alternative possibilities.
I certainly think children nowadays with such problems are far more fortunate.

I do wonder how much DCD/dyspraxia affects social skills. According to psychiatrists mine are very poor. Indeed the most severe aspect of my psychiatric history is difficulty socially interacting with others and a severe lack of friends.

I am as certain as can be that my paranoia and social anxiety stemmed from negative peer reactions to my physical and social awkwardness. I think those things more than depression,mood swings and psychotic symptoms are the primary reason I have never worked.

I was in line to go to a rehabilitation centre in the late 70s to be assessed but my then pdoc scotched it. She said I wasn't well enough. The opportunity never arose again.

I do think, with the manual/ practical and executive functioning difficulties, that I would have been limited in the work I could do.

It really stinks that you didn't get the help you needed.

Unfortunately I think a lot of people from my generation are in the same boat.

My movements can look similar to CP to the untrained eye. The difference is there's no contortion involved as there is with CP. I had so much trouble with my waking coordination it effected my right leg enough to need a corrective brace. When I'm in a big place like an amusement park, I use a wheelchair because it makes it easier for everyone. I fall down easily, walk into stuff, knock stuff over. Can't catch, can't throw. But I am good at aming a target pistol and taking photographs.