Clumsiness or something else???

[Lizmay12]

SORRY for the long post.
My DD is 4 now. She started school and is now in full time.
She has always been clumsy and has bundles of energy. She lives off 7/8 hours sleep per night but seems to work fine for her as she is never grumpy and never ever gets tired.
As an example on Sunday we set off at 7:30 am for a day out to the beach/fun fair. 4 hours travelling and 7 hours there. She was absolutely fine with this sang all the way home in the car I was exhausted!
She can NOT sit still. Me and family always thought she was just bored and ready for school. But since starting school she still can't stop jumping running around, she will watch her tablet upside down back to front swinging her arms around for an hour!

Anyway my main concern is she is constantly falling and bumping her head. Since starting school she has had Four accident forms sent home. Today:
It was quite serious she has a swollen leg and I had to pick her up at 11:30am. She was swinging off the side of a climbing frame and decided to jump off. TA said she was lucky she didn't break her leg. Brought her home she ran around all day as usual. She fell in her room and banged her head and she now has a purplish bruise near her eye.
Then when DH came home I nipped back to work and he rang me in tears saying she wrapped a towel round her head and jumped off the top of the stairs. She luckily was ok and had no serious injuries. I rushed home and she was laughing her head off climbing on the back of the couch.


I have cut ALL sugar out of her diet. She was fine as a baby nothing of concern.
I do not know what to do about her. She has no fear my mum jokes that she's going to be a stunt woman.

I don't know what to do.

[BravoHopeful]

Eye test? Including visual fields?

[Lizmay12]

Eye test is a really good point. Thank you.

[captainproton]

My little boy is 3 and he has got 3 scars on his face. One where he ran straight into a bright green playhouse at full pelt (he was 2), one where he ran and fell into a swing (it wasn't moving), one where he went to the loo and ran back, tripped and slammed his forehead into the corner of a chair. I have caught him hopping downstairs, running around with blankets on his head so he can't see. Running around staring at aeroplanes and tripping over all the time. He had his eyes checked and they're fine, it's just him. He has no spacial awareness, no ability to think before he acts. Sometimes if it looks like he will fall and cause a relatively minor graze I let him, in the eternal hope he will learn through experience. It just hasn't sunk in yet. My daughter was nothing like this. But I to would like to know if they grow out of it!

[Haggard1]

My DS focuses better in lessons if he does activities before school. I'm thinking of getting a trampoline so he can bounce off some of his energy.

He also bumps in to loads of things and has just been diagnosed as being slightly short sighted.

On the other hand he also learns while fidgeting and has split concentration - he can look like he's not paying attention and playing but will have perfect recall (super annoying sometimes!).

Is there a way to teach her safety and consequences - like Go Ape so she learns how to thrill seek safely?

[Lizmay12]

I'm going to speak to school as I am not sure how she is in class.
At nursery she was always having accidents and apart from staff saying she could fall over fresh air they had no concerns about it.
I'm thinking it may be her eyesight.
She has had some terrible scrapes and cuts and I always say be careful, look where your going etc. But doesn't seem to help. Just checked on her and her eye is very bruised and purple slightly swollen. She's got school in the morning and it worries me.

Thank you for responding.

[Ilovemygsd]

I would get eye sight check but it doesn't sound like that. Poor eye sight wouldn't make her wrap a blanket round her head and jump down the stairs. Sounds very hyperactive to me, adhd

[Lizmay12]

Ilovemygsd
I thought this but she has only been this way since around 2yo so I'm not sure?

[BravoHopeful]

Just to expand on my eyesight comment - important to check visual fields (which eye tests don't always do). i had routine eye tests during childhood that didn't pick up my severe eye condition which includes reduced visual fields. I've always been clumsy and prone to scrapes: the things I bump into just aren't 'there' in my reduced field of vision.


If you want, and she will co-operate, you can do a DIY test to give yourself an idea if there's a problem.

1. Sit her opposite you and tell her to stare at the bridge of your nose (even better, paint a dot or stick a sticker between your eyebrows to help her focus on it).
   
2. Hold your index fingers up, level with your shoulders (as if you're pointing to the ceiling)
   
3. Tell her to keep looking at the dot between your eyebrows as you slowly bring one finger in until it reaches your nose. Tell her to shout out when she 'spots' the finger. She mustn't look at it directly, the idea is to find out when it enters her field of peripheral vision.
   
4. Do each finger separately, to get an idea of the size of her visual field. I think normal levels are about 180 degrees. Mine were about 90 degrees when diagnosed (and about 5 degrees now).
   

Good luck!

[Ilovemygsd]

Lizmay12 I knew a girl with ADHD very well in my 20's. Her mother said she wasn't hyper like that until school age. Worth getting check out