Can anyone share their experiences of a child with dyspraxia please?

I can help explain the connection between dyspraxia and auditory processing (processing sound) for you. I am a speech pathologist and work with children and adults with dypsraxia. I'm also lucky enough to work in a practice with an Occupational Therapist, and combined therapy works really well. Children with dyspraxia don't have the same practise opportunities as most other children developing language, even though they are bright, intelligent children. So their brain does not lay down strong, clear representations of the sounds of speech. The difficulty increases when they are expected to remember long instructions or pieces of information in complex sentences. There is more info on my website, www.dyspraxia.info. Feel free to use the information, and all the best for your kids. They can certainly live a full, enjoyable life with school success and social interaction.

Take the trainer wheels off, Sit the child on the bike and ask to propel themselves forward with their feet. Do this a couple of times, then ask them to lift the feet onto the pedals.

Our son had NDD and he pretty much learned to bike in a single day using this method.

I am dyspraxic as well, msWeatherwax your posts sound exactly the same as my experience!

I still can't ride a bike well, but tbh it's not really an issue! I'm learning to drive now, it's taking me longer, but it's getting there, hopefully! It's really not that big a deal, honestly. Most of the things I struggle with I don't really need - I never really handwrite anything anymore, or use maths at all! I got my grade C GCSE so I could go on to college and uni, and not used it since.

The only thing I still struggle with is being socially awkward sometimes.

Your situation is similar to mine. Son is now 13 and just being officially diagnosed with dyspraxia this morning. I had noticed something wasn't right since year 3 but they kept telling me he is getting extra support. It became more apparent when he started secondary school and he kept getting detention after detention for forgetting homework and forgetting to attend detention.

Spoke to the school, not really helpful and someone on mumsnet suggested I should talk to my GP. I must say it was the best thing I ever did. Not happy he has got it but happy that he would hopefully get the help needed. We have got our first OT appt in December.

Fingers x

thanks MsW I am glad you came through it. Its a vicious circle isn't it - the bullying damages your social confidence which results in more bulying.......
I have said the same about social skills classes and from the posts I read on here there would be no shortage of takers.

takenonboard The bullying eased off around Year 9, after I started doing a martial art and was able to defend myself better. Around that time I got a group of friends and became a lot more socially confident. Being bullied leaves a bit of a legacy - it's hard to always feel confident around other people and I was bullied in the workplace after leaving school. I can be a little reserved at times, but I make friends easily these days (I'm just fussy about who with). I think it helps to find your niche, such as a sport or a hobby so that you have a focal point for social interaction, but it's mostly practice and confidence. For me I had some low self esteem issues after being bullied that I had to work through in therapy. Finding things he is good at to keep the self-esteem up (those certain sports, maybe) and not tolerating any bullying sounds like a good start, and encouraging lots of group activities where he enjoys them. I don't know if social skills are taught anywhere but I think it would be a good idea if they were.

orm we paid for a private report for ds2 as our GP just kept fobbing us off. He also has a high reading/spelling age, but when he was younger teachers presumed he was a bit dim because of how he presents - he zones out and struggles to complete his work. (We now know why he does this though - it's linked to his DCD.)

Thankfully his teacher last year and also this year have been much more on the ball (thank goodness) and he's getting some of the necessary adjustments...although the report may have helped with that!

Mrsweatherwax do you mind me asking if you are still socially awkward and if/when the bullying at school ceased?

I suspect my 10yo DS has mild dyspraxia he is very academic and quite good at certain sports which do not involve too much co ordination but he is extremely disorganised and socially awkward he has been bullied in the past and is now feeling unpopular at school. I really don't understand this aspect and wonder what I can do to help him and when or if he will catch up with his peers social skills.

Feathers your post made me want to cry!!! His school is failing him at the most basic level...everybody is good at something, and everyone deserves a chance to shine.
I had a very similar situation with DS (when he was 4 1/2 - 5)- nobody thought he noticed, but he did, and it did huge damage to his self-esteem. I would be giving his teacher a very hard time at the parent teachers. Every child needs to feel they can be successful at something.

It's been so helpful reading everyones comments on here. My son will be 6 in March so is in his second year at primary school. Since nursery teachers have pointed out that he struggles with his learning etc and is behind in his writing, maths etc. I'm due to have his first teacher evening next week and although dyspraxia has never been mentioned I think I will be talking to them about it, as he is showing many signs.
I went to yet another assembly today where half his class got up and read beautiful poems perfectly and as usual he was left out, they never allow him to do anything in assembly, sports day or school plays, he's to young to notice at the moment but it makes me so upset :O(

At Year 3/4 ds was similar to how you describe, his academic performance fairly indifferent, quiet in class and group situations, poor at team sport. However several teachers thought he was bright and sure enough a EP report in Year 6 revealed he was well above average in verbal skills, even average in numerical, masked by dyspraxia (poor motor skills, working memory, sensory issues) and potentially traits of APD and AS. He had one to one learning support and touch typing lessons and achieved an academic scholarship at 13+ to a good independent school, really blossoming as he gained an understanding of his weaknesses and developing strategies to overcome them. He is much more organised and self-disciplined than dd (NT) for example.

Of course now he has moved school he is havign to find his way a bit again but hopefully this will resolve in time and has already opted out of rugby. I hope this gives you some hope that your ds2 may yet achieve his potential and can overcome some of the challenges he may face, if indeed he is dyspraxic. An assessment could open up all sorts of possibilties. Good luck.

Cheers! Have done the slope and no pedals. Haven't done the huge hill and the broom handle. Good to know persistence eventually pays off :)

Many hours for cycling . Finally cracked it with an empty rucksack on her back which we held onto then let go and also a broom handle stuffed down just above back wheel to steady it. Started on a slight slope as well.

Another on with a dyspraxic DD3 here. She is now 17 and has done well. As someone said earlier up (or down) the thread, it has got less of an issue as she has got older. She has developed coping strategies and is generally fine now, although we recognise things that others might see as slightly quirky, but to us they are just DD3.
We were lucky to have an early diagnosis at the age of 3 so that really helped for her schooling as we didnt have to fight for someone to acknowledge there was a problem.

Katharine re the cycling - it took us endless, endless hours!! As with learning most new skills to be honest. But we have found that if we all persevere it will suddenly "click" and she has "got" it!! With the cycling I remember DD3 went to the top of a grassy hill near where we live and launched herself off, she went down the hill and just kept going around the field. Eventually she fell off with DH and I charging after her, she turned to us and told us off for not teaching her how to stop!!

I hope you get a diagnosis soon and he can get some help. Dont think of the diagnosis as a negative label, see it as a ticket to getting the help he needs so that he can reach his potential!!

I was a dyspraxic child, now a dyspraxic adult with two degrees who, thanks to a lot of practice and the aid of modern technology, is one of the most organised people I know. Am still messy, learnt to drive but never passed my test, and am not a fan of sports like tennis involving lots of co-ordination but am great at rock climbing. At school what I found hard was being bad at the sports we did, being different and socially awkward and getting bullied, forgetting things ALL THE TIME - my homework and the things I needed for school and getting upset about it. Being able to type in school was the thing that saved me. I did well academically with this facility allowed for in exams because of my statement.

Re the cycling, we haven't done this as DS isn't really that interested but the way to go is apparently to get a balance bike or a cheaper way would be to take the pedals off. Once the child can balance on the bike whilst sort of scooting along then you can add back the pedals. It will still take time but the balance bike thing makes an extra step between stabilizers and riding without stabilizers which is sometimes what is needed to make the transition manageable.

Can somebody please tell me how to get a dyspraxic child cycling. I have pretty much given up.

My DC1 is dyspraxic. I took him to the Dr.'s and insisted on a referal. He has seen all sorts of specialists and even had a CT scan and eventually a year later we had the diagnosis.

He eventually learnt to ride a bike this summer. This is with him just being extremely determined and year after year trying and trying. We have managed to get him to tie his tie this year as well. We started by doing it for him till the last step and then he would do that with us talking him through it. When he mastered that without prompting I did the tie up to the last two steps and so on. We are working on shoe laces at the moment, eight months in and it is stil sticky but we are getting there. Getting his clothes on has been a labour of love for years but we have it cracked nearly.

He is allowed to use a pen at school, rather than a pencil. Though this year it is mainly pens anyway. He has a wedge thing to write on. He is allowed to use his netbook in school which is helping. He has problems with to many instructions but the teacher writes them out on the board for him. He has difficulty organising himself at school so he has a timetable and it details all lessons, which subject homework he should have each day and when it is due to be handed in.

He is very clumsy and can trip over air. Swimming is hilarious but with practice he his getting better. His art is immature. He is in the top five of his class for English and maths and is in the gifted and talented program for science, he's been known to explain to the teacher when she has got it wrong. He is socially inept as well.

There is a lot more but it is improving and we are getting there. Through the process we have also discovered that my DH is an undiagnosed dyspraxic with autistic tendencies ( dc1 also has autistic tendencies and dc2 is on the way for a diagnosis for autism.) DH went to university for four years and got a good degree, was a successful business manager, went back to university and did his PGCE and now is an outstanding teacher and head of department. So there is light at the end of the tunnel.

I am going to go a bit against the grain here.

My DS teacher suggested this to me at a teacher interview out of the blue, with an IEP already in place and the SENCO there. The main reasons were his handwriting was bad (it was) he couldn't tie his tie, he couldn't skip with a rope, and he took his shirt off over his head rather than undo the buttons.

I googled at home and discovered the list of "symptoms" seemed to fit my DS.

I took him to have his hearing tested at a private clinic it was fine.
I insisted he tied his own tie in the morning. He has a tendency to let others do things for him (yes lazy!) I made him undo his shirt buttons (very unfair when he sees his father take his shirt of over his head). The skipping was a struggle as he has zero interest in doing girls stuff, and from he was no age I couldn't get him to sit down with pencils and colour in.

Anyway, what I'm getting to is that he is / was immature for his age in comparison to his peers but he has suddenly decided off his own bat to colour in and make patterns with the result his writing is better. He listens more or concentrates more at school as he now understands it's not a play environment having seen his cousins go through the 11 plus.

I'm not for one moment suggesting your DC does not have dyspraxia, and indeed, remain open to the fact that maybe my DS is. BUT, do not try to read into symptoms that can be explained by the personality he has, the environment he is in, or other factors.

Some times it just "clicks" later with some of them.

"intelligent and knowledgable as well as creative and imaginative"
this is exactly what i'm thinking about my daugter but slow,problem with short term memory, problem visiualizing, not mature enough compare to her peers, has no confidence,low self esteem, she has to watch same film 3-4 times to understand......etc

Oh and another thing, the best book I have read on dyspraxia is Caged in Chaos which is written to help older dyspraxic children and their parents understand the condition. It is written by a teenager (who is now studying English at Cambridge I think) and is very readable but it was my DS to a tee. I tooks quite a lot of comfort from it because although it does say that life for dyspraxics is hard, it also gives you hope that it isn't the worst thing that could have happened and you can have a happy and successful life.

I'll shut up now. 3 posts on the trot is quite enough from me.