There is no cure or medication treatments available for dyspraxia. Dyspraxia treatment therefore usually involves a variety of health and social care professionals, school and family, working together.
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.
Causes of DCD
It's not usually clear why co-ordination doesn't develop as well as other abilities in children with DCD. However, a number of risk factors that can increase a child's likelihood of developing DCD have been identified. These include: being born prematurely, before the 37th week of pregnancy.
Dyspraxia is a neurological disorder that impacts an individual's ability to plan and process motor tasks. Individuals with dyspraxia often have language problems, and sometimes a degree of difficulty with thought and perception.
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.
What is dyspraxia ? Children with dyspraxia have problems with smooth and coordinated movements. Dyspraxia is often present after a brain injury. Dyspraxia brought on by a brain injury can improve with time and therapy.
Dyspraxia is commonly identified alongside dyslexia – some reports even suggest that half of dyslexic children exhibit symptoms characteristic of dyspraxia. Attention difficulties and dyspraxia may also co-present, as can dyspraxia and autism spectrum disorder.
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.
Fundamentally, autism is a disorder that affects socialization and communication, while dyspraxia affects motor skills and physical coordination. While coinciding symptoms aren't uncommon, the two are considered distinct disorders.
Poor, slow and effortful handwriting. Poor paper cutting skills. Difficulty in catching and throwing a ball. Poor at running, jumping, climbing and team sports.
It can affect your co-ordination skills – such as tasks requiring balance, playing sports or learning to drive a car. Dyspraxia can also affect your fine motor skills, such as writing or using small objects.
Problems with movement and co-ordination are the main symptoms of DCD. Children may have difficulty with: playground activities such as hopping, jumping, running, and catching or kicking a ball. They often avoid joining in because of their lack of co-ordination and may find physical education difficult.
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.
If they do not enjoy team games, try other sports such as tennis, badminton, golf, swimming, archery, fishing, sailing, table tennis, canoeing. They do not need to participate in competitive sport but just playing is a great way to exercise.
Knee walking: Walk forwards and backwards on the knees. Have races. Jumping: Jump forwards, backwards and over small objects. Throwing & Catching: Use a ball that will give the child success, e.g. bean bag, koosh, juggling ball, large ball or tennis ball.
There is no cure or medication treatments available for dyspraxia.
Does dyspraxia/DCD run in families? Dyspraxia/DCD seems to run in families in some cases, but to date, no specific gene has been identified. It is likely that there are many different causes of dyspraxia/DCD, and genetics may be one.
Dyspraxia often co-occurs with ADHD, but the two conditions are separate. Luckily, there are support groups, online resources, and coping skills for dyspraxic individuals seeking a diagnosis.
Plenty of people with dyspraxia earn their licence and go on to become excellent drivers. You just need to go into it with determination and an acceptance that some lessons may be difficult. It's also understandably frustrating when you know that some of the problems you'll face are out of your control.
The presence of many (although not all) of these signs might suggest that a child has dyspraxia/DCD: Delay in acquiring early motor skills such as sitting, crawling, walking. Difficulty running, jumping, hopping, catching/throwing compared to other children. Movements appear awkward, slow, hesitant.
For a long time it was assumed that children would “grow out of” their movement difficulties. But we now have evidence that in many children the motor difficulties persist into adulthood and are commonly associated with a range of socio-emotional problems later on.
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.
People with Dyspraxia may find tasks requiring balance, such as playing sports, and tasks that require fine motor skills, such as writing, very difficult. It is a lifelong condition, though it can ease over time.
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.