How do you go about diagnosing dyspraxia?

[Soubriquet]

I suspect my ds(4) has this.

He is incredibly clumsy. Can fall over thin air and can’t go anywhere without falling over at least 3 times.

One of his feet turns inwards as he walks which I don’t think helps.

I’ve seen a doctor once and they just told me to get shoes that support the ankle and that was it.

I got my daughter referred at 5. I went to gp and got a referral. I also went to school and got senco to observe and took this letter to paed. We then got an OT referral had a few sessions and got diagnosis.

Does he have any other symptoms?

My daughter is / was

Scatty and forgetful
Poor fine motor skills (as wel as the gross motor skills you mention)
Cannot do anything like lego / jigsaws
Sensory issues around hands being dirty and not touching things.
How does he walk down stairs - does he do both feet to same step before he goes to next step
Can he follow more than 1 instruction at a time?

Steps down the stairs as one, foot, then same foot. Can’t do one two.

He is easily distracted. You ask him to do something and he will start...and then forget and won’t follow through. Would be pointless giving him instructions as he would forget.

He cant do jigsaws or Lego and gets very frustrated if you try to get him to do it.

Fine motor skills he needs serious work on. Gross motor skills he’s getting there but it’s clumsy

Sounds very similar to my daughter - can you try gp again with a list of the symptoms he ticks? Is he still at nursery or school?

Although my dd was flagged as have poor motor skills at nursery and put in intervention groups in reception he was only when i flagged end of reception / y1 it really got looked at.

She is borderline which is why I guess not picked up earlier but it is impacting her ore as she gets older. I was also told our area does not take OT referrals after age 6 or something so better to get in early!

It was clear early on that DS had dyslexia as his reading and writing ability did not match his intellect, and he consistently showed dyslexic type difficulties. We had to wait until 8.5 (new financial year after turning 8) to access dyslexia testing (and even then had to pay privately) and the specialist investigated and identifed dyspraxia too after noting his very low writing speed and how quickly he complained that writing was painful.

We'd already got a referal in at the GP for a broad range of concerns, many of which fit a dyspraxia picture. Lots relating to fine motor such as table skills/ manipulating cutlery. Also organisation/ self care/ sensory issues. He's 9 and I have to brush his teeth as the sensory plus co-ordination side is too much for him to manage.

We saw a consultant paeds recently via the GP (1+ year ago) and we discussed dyspraxia amid another diagnosis. She wasn't sure about dyspraxia as although he has the fine motor/ sensory/ organisation issues, his gross motor is OK, although we've done a lot like swimming since babyhood, and gymnastics that have supported his development.

The system seems very inconsistent on who to see and how seriously they take you. There is a lot of waiting and nudging in the right places to go through. While waiting there's then the conundrum on supporting to help your child, but not risking masking their issues so they don't get dismissed when professionals are ready to take notice.

How do you go about diagnosing dyspraxia?
And then what? Are you hoping that the relevant services will leap into action?

FWIW, dyspraxia seems to be a funny thing. Nobody will definitely say "he has dyspraxia", it's always "displays symptoms consistent with".

The falling sounds more like a problem with his foot. Falling isn't particularly a trait of dyspraxia. I'd be urgently getting that foot seen to - finding out just what is wrong as well as getting special shoes or whatever is needed .

My DD is dyspraxic and we got her diagnosed at 5. We paid a fortune for private OT over several years, but we also found it helpful to do things at home. We got a trampoline and she jumps on it every day for about half an hour . Swimming lessons every week for many years . She has also done horse therapy for several years. It all helps and you have to do what you can and not expect outside services to do everything.

I have dyspraxia. I was diagnosed by a private ed psych. That was nearly 20 years ago though so things will have probably changed a lot since then.

@ShippingNews

One of the most obvious symptoms of my daughters dyspraxia was her falling over - she could fall over thin air when walking off chairs and even when she was sitting on the floor!

I fear that at 4 they'll probably take a 'wait and see', especially if he has problems with his feet. Has he had an eye test?

DD1 got dyspraxia diagnosis age 15. I went to the GP with a list of issues and was referred to an OT.

DD2 saw a 'balance doctor' in primary but was eventually signed off. She was given exercises to help with motor skills. She didn't master doing stairs properly until secondary school. She's 15 now and still not great with them.

In the meantime, swimming is great for helping various aspects of coordination. progress might be slow compared with others but it is worth persevering for the coordination, fitness and life saving benefits.

My DD was diagnosed by Developmental Paediatrics. they referred her to OT and after 2 assessments by them, the paediatrician diagnosed her.

Ps. She's officially diagnosed with Developmental Coordination Disorder, but people seem to use that and dyspraxia interchangably.

DCD is the technical term for dyspraxia. The diagnostic criteria include significant motor difficulties but not caused by any other condition. OTs can do assessments which consider movement skills and motor planning but are not able to rule out that they are not caused by any other conditions. That's where a paediatrician is required. An OT will tell you how poor their movement skills are compared to typical skills for their age. In most places you can self refer to OT. A diagnosis may give you a reason for their difficulties but for any intervention programme from an OT a diagnosis is not required.

Joining this thread.
We self referred to the OT and got send to weekly assessments
They haven’t told us if she has or hasn’t and the assessment is done
I asked an online group who told me her results suggested she did have dyspraxia

Can anyone help that’s clued you? I don’t mean to highjack OP, I’m intrigued to hear the answers you get too

*clued up

My DS was diagnosed by an independent EP.

My son had an assessment by a private OT - she said he clearly had dyspraxia but also had other things going on, she wasn’t allowed to officially diagnose.

We took the report to his NHS paed who officially diagnosed dyspraxia and then later on after further assessments ASD and ADHD.

Yes my dyspraxic DD can trip over thin air too. She’s 10 and was diagnosed just before her 9th birthday. I have to say the NHS (which I would generally defend to the hilt) seemed determined to hide the way forward for me at all costs. We eventually saw a private clinical psychologist. The report cost £800.

Yes - falling and tripping a factor. One side markedly weaker than the other and I have joint problems in the ankle, although this is possibly chicken-and-egg which may come from a lifetime of it being weak and not as responsive as the other.
This relates to aspergers, another ASD although with related characteristics, but it's a (fascinating) box I tick as a dyspraxic.
www.aspiestrategy.com/2013/02/adults-on-spectrum-these-are-your-feet.html
Certain things or areas will always seem to be very difficult and not easily improved (driving is the big one for me, although this would be quite a wait to see if it is the same). However, at other things the performance of them will probably be unusually good. You get strengths as well as weak spots.

My nephew is diagnosed with DCD - one of the first things they did after DX was to get him to a weekly OT class with guidelines for therapies to be done at home. There are a lot of therapeutic games you can play with them to improve their co-ordination, etc. As mentioned by PP, other physical activities are very helpful for this, like swimming, trampolining and the like.

I found Tara Delaney's book 101 Games and Activities for Children here to be useful. It is aimed at children with neural diversity which includes dyspraxia and has useful explanations of why children can find everyday tasks difficult.