Dyspraxia, also known as developmental co-ordination disorder (DCD), is a common disorder that affects movement and co-ordination. Dyspraxia does not affect your intelligence. It can affect your co-ordination skills – such as tasks requiring balance, playing sports or learning to drive a car.
generally it impacts fine motor skills (e.g. holding a pencil) and/or gross motor skills (e.g. riding a bicycle). It can also impact the ability to organise yourself, remember information and control actions. processing differences. They may be sensory avoidant e.g. leaving a room when noises are too loud for them.
A learner with dyspraxia may have limited concentration skills and poor listening skills – giving too much information quickly can overwhelms pupils and makes it hard to process and pick out key information. Asking questions and wanting immediate answers – pupils need time to process what has been said.
Clumsy gait and movement. Difficulty changing direction, stopping and starting actions. Exaggerated 'accessory movements' such as flapping arms when running. Tendency to fall, trip, bump into things and people.
Many people with Dyspraxia and other neurological deficits find interpreting the meaning of messages from what we see in the world around us a challenge. Of course some people without Dyspraxia sometimes experience these difficulties too, when trying to decode to us what seems like the impossible.
Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD) or Dyspraxia is commonly associated with difficulties with movement, when in fact there are many strengths associated with this neurotype. Big picture thinking, problem solving, tenacity, creativity and empathy are all qualities associated with DCD.
Because of their dyspraxia, kids can have trouble controlling their muscles. This includes small muscles, like the ones in their hands. This can make everyday tasks like writing and brushing their teeth a struggle. It can also make them seem uncoordinated, immature and socially awkward.
Common Dyspraxia strengths
Dyspraxics often learn to develop soft skills such as active listening, empathy, and when to delegate tasks to others. Their desire for people to understand what they deal with ensures that they communicate clearly too. All these result in dyspraxics making good leaders.
Daniel Radcliffe (Actor)
Best known for his titular role in the Harry Potter films, Daniel revealed that he had a mild form of dyspraxia in 2008 in an interview for his Broadway debut in Equus. He was unsuccessful at school and 'he sometimes still has trouble tying his shoelaces.
Many adults who have dyspraxia experience few problems in the workplace and have developed their own strategies for working effectively. They are often determined, persistent, hard-working and highly motivated. In many ways, adults with dyspraxia are similar to those with dyslexia.
Apraxia is usually caused by damage to the parietal lobes or to nerve pathways that connect these lobes to other parts of the brain, such as frontal and/or temporal lobes. These areas store memories of learned sequences of movements. Less often, apraxia results from damage to other areas of the brain.
The effects of dyspraxia
Anxiety and depression are fairly common in individuals with dyspraxia. The Dyspraxia Foundation reports that “there is increasing evidence of associated anxiety, depression, behavioural disorders and low self-esteem in children, teenagers and young adults with dyspraxia”.
Dyspraxia affects motor coordination, visual perception, spatial awareness, short-term working memory and organisation of tasks and thoughts. This means it can cause difficulties with organising study, prioritising tasks and formulating academic arguments, such as essays and reports.
Tiredness and fatigue are overwhelming for many adults who have dyspraxia due to the effort it takes in planning, prioritising, processing and performing everyday tasks whilst trying not to get distracted.
Memory deficits are apparent, as children with Dyspraxia have difficulty processing information from the auditory and visual systems, thus making it more difficult to recall, remember, and use information they have learned through those channels.
Dyspraxia is most commonly caused by stroke or acquired brain injury. There are 2 types of Dyspraxia: (1) Oral dyspraxia– difficulty with non-verbal tasks - when asked to do so (E.g. please poke out your tongue), however the person can perform non-verbal tasks successfully and automatically (E.g. licking an ice cream).
The brain does not process the written word as do most brains and so people with this condition must learn in other ways. Albert Einstein, Bill Gates, Henry Ford and Richard Branson had/have this condition. Dyspraxia is a brain-based motor disorder.
At the age of 16, Einstein struggled to tie his shoelaces, implying he could have had dyspraxia. He also failed his college examinations. According to The Dyspraxic Chef, Einstein was 'thought of as being dyspraxic' or 'having had dyspraxia tendencies.
Some trivia for you: Did you know that the actor who plays Harry Potter, Daniel Radcliffe, has Dyspraxia? Dyspraxia is a developmental co-ordination disorder (DCD) that impacts the way the brain processes information, resulting in movement and co-ordination difficulties.
Although Dyspraxia is a lifelong condition, adults and young people present differently to children with the condition as they have developed adaptive (or maladaptive, in some cases) coping strategies to manage their difficulties.
While they do not get worse over time, their challenges may become more apparent with increasing academic demands. They have to work harder and/or differently than their peers to achieve the same goals. Despite their difficulties, pupils with dyspraxia can and do learn to perform some motor tasks quite well.
Myth #4: Kids with dyspraxia tend to have low intelligence.
Fact: There's no connection between dyspraxia and IQ . Having dyspraxia doesn't mean a child isn't intelligent. However, the way kids with dyspraxia behave might make them appear less capable than they are.
Over sensitive – dyspraxic people are often over sensitive to light, sound and/or touch. Therefore, they may find sounds louder than normal, not like to be touched, squint more often than most or be easily distracted by noise.
There is increasing evidence of associated anxiety, depression, behavioural disorders and low self-esteem in children, teenagers and young adults with dyspraxia/DCD: • Children with DCD exhibit more aggressive behaviour that age-matched controls (Chen et al 2009).