Dyspraxia is often misperceived as dyslexia (when someone struggles with processing written information, working memory, and visual processing skills). It's widely misunderstood and misdiagnosed, but DCD affects up to 6% of children and continues to affect adults as they age.
There are no medical tests that can definitively diagnose dyspraxia. Instead, your child's team of healthcare providers will ask detailed questions about your child's medical history, development and symptoms. They'll assess your child's gross and fine motor skills, coordination and balance.
A small number of children, usually those with mild symptoms who are diagnosed early, may be able to learn how to overcome their difficulties. However the vast majority of children need long-term help and will continue to be affected as teenagers and adults.
Dyspraxia can be diagnosed by professionals including pediatricians, psychologists and learning specialists. More severe cases may be diagnosed by a neurologist, who can determine if a neurological problem is causing the child's challenges.
If you have dyspraxia, you may also have other conditions, such as: attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) dyslexia. autism spectrum disorder.
Dyspraxia is a developmental condition that affects motor movement and coordination. It's widely misunderstood and often misdiagnosed as ADHD. Dyspraxia can also be referred to as DCD or developmental coordination disorder.
The praxis system is made up of a series of functions associated with particular areas of the brain including the frontal and parietal cortex, basal ganglia, and white matter tracts between these areas. These areas work together to produce the desired purposeful movement in order to perform the required action.
Although DCD may be suspected in the pre-school years, it's not usually possible to make a definite diagnosis before a child is aged 5.
In childhood, dyspraxia (also known as developmental coordination disorder or DCD) usually refers to a disorder in which children do not develop the motor skills that are expected for their age. While some children outgrow the condition, the majority continue to experience movement difficulty as adolescents and adults.
Overall life skills: Dyspraxia can make it hard to master everyday tasks needed for independence. In elementary school, children may still need help in buttoning their shirt or brushing their teeth. As teens, they could have trouble learning to drive a car or fry an egg.
Treatment and recovery from dyspraxia:
Improvement is generally slow, and there is no established timeframe for recovery. Dyspraxia can be challenging to recover from, and some people will experience ongoing difficulties with their speech.
Males are more like to be affected by dyspraxia/DCD than females, but females are often older when their difficulties are identified. Although dyspraxia/DCD is a unique and separate condition people will often (but not always) have another diagnosis too.
Movement and co-ordination problems
They often avoid joining in because of their lack of co-ordination and may find physical education difficult. walking up and down stairs. writing, drawing and using scissors – their handwriting and drawings may appear scribbled and less developed compared to other children their age.
The Dyspraxia Foundation says there may be a range of co-occurring difficulties with dyspraxia which can include articulation and speech, perception and thought. There can also be difficulties with reading, spelling and writing.
Dyspraxia is a lifelong condition, although a person's difficulties can change over time depending on their environment and the tasks they have to complete in their everyday life. Estimates of how many people have dyspraxia range from 5-18% of the population.
One of the primary symptoms of dyspraxia is poor handwriting. This is due to poor motor skills, perceptual dysfunction and erratic organisation and motor planning.
Because dyspraxia is a developmental coordination condition, children with dyspraxia can struggle with maths. Due to the nature of dyspraxia, it can cause dyspraxic students to become easily distracted or overwhelmed when in a learning environment, and encounter difficulties following/remembering instructions.
Dyspraxia does not affect a person's IQ, but they may often have to navigate a mind which can be unorganized, meaning they are usually very intelligent people. Navigating around these barriers results in creating strategies to overcome problems really well.
Because dyspraxia often affects writing, reading and spelling abilities, a child with dyspraxia may require more time to process new tasks. They might also experience more success when they over-learn material through repetition and a graded step-by-step approach.
Individuals with dyspraxia will need more help and time when learning new tasks. They will likely benefit from visual demonstrations alongside verbal instructions. They will also benefit from extra opportunities to practise when learning a new skill or task.
It is thought dyspraxia affects up to 6% of the population, with up to 2% being severely affected. Males are four times more likely to be affected than females. Dyspraxia has also been shown, at times, to run in families.
Dyspraxia, however, does not affect the person's intelligence, although it can cause learning problems in children. Developmental dyspraxia is an immaturity of the organization of movement. The brain does not process information in a way that allows for a full transmission of neural messages.
Developmental co-ordination disorder (DCD), also known as dyspraxia, is a condition affecting physical co-ordination. It causes a child to perform less well than expected in daily activities for their age, and appear to move clumsily.
This means it can cause difficulties with organising study, prioritising tasks and formulating academic arguments, such as essays and reports. As dyspraxia is an umbrella term, not everyone will experience the same difficulties. It can also occur with other Specific Learning Difficulties (SpLDs), such as dyslexia.