So, I'm wondering whether my 8yo daughter might have mild dyspraxia.
When she was younger she would fall over nothing all the time, and although she falls over a lot less now, she is still quite awkward with her limbs and often bumps into things, or does weird movements that can send her legs flying. But then again she is a good dancer. She does tap, ballet and modern and was recently selected to represent the dance school in a competition as part of a troupe. She is also a good swimmer performing above her age, and also does well running and cycling.
On the other hand she has the worst memory in the world. Like goldfish bad. I will send her off to do a couple of tasks and she will come back ten minutes later having been distracted the moment she left the room and completely forgotten to do them. She does it all the time. And really basic things that are part of her everyday routine she will forget to do. In the mornings I have to constantly remind her to bring her book bag, or to pack it and so on. One day this week she forgot to order her lunch at school - which she does every day - and then had to eat a weird mix of what was leftover.
But on the other hand she can do quite good maths and sums in her head. She has good maths and literacy skills and is performing nearly two years ahead of target. She is better than me at doing mental arithmetic and plays maths games with her dad halving and quartering numbers he challenges her with. She can read well and has no problem with pronunciation but her handwriting is quite poor. She can write much better if she takes her time.
Her planning skills are not great and she sets ridiculously high standards for herself and then gets hugely frustrated when she doesn't attain them. She's a bit of a perfectionist and will dissolve into tears if she feels she's let herself down. She is struggling with anger and frustration quite a lot at the moment.
She is quite clumsy and will regularly send drinks flying.
She struggles terribly to switch her head off at night and will often take a long time to get to sleep.
So I am not sure what's going on here. She has quite a lot of the 'symptoms' of dyspraxia, but then also many of the symptoms that are classic dyspraxia she does not display at all.
When I express my frustration at her poor memory for example she will get really upset and say 'what's wrong with me mummy?' which is what has led me to research and brought me to the dyspraxia suggestion.
But maybe she is just a bit clumsy and forgetful and this is just in her nature and she is being a fairly normal 8 yr old.
My OH thinks this is the case and that we don't need to get her tested and that it is better just to lighten up on her clumsiness and forgetfulness and help her find ways to manage it and that if she were to get a diagnosis it would just be a label that could set her back.
I spoke with my daughter about the pros and cons of going to see the doctor and she decided she would prefer not to and would instead like to find ways of managing her symptoms like using a notebook to help her memory.
I'm wondering if a diagnosis would help her feel that these things are something she can't help, that there isn't anything wrong with her but that it is the syndrome. And I also think it might help me and my OH to ease up on some of the more annoying facets of her behaviour. But for now I'm happy to accept her preference not to get tested.
I'm hoping that someone might be able to say, no, there's nothing wrong with your daughter, she's just an average 8 yr old, or if someone whose child does have dyspraxia can tell me whether they think she is showing enough of the symptoms to suggest she might have it to some degree and even if she does, would a diagnosis gain us anything?
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Poss Dyspraxia. Do we need a diagnosis? Advice welcomed.
18 replies
MsMommy · 28/11/2012 21:29
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