Dyspraxia

[freespirit333]

What sports do your DC with Dyspraxia (DCD) do?

DS9 has tried a lot, and he really isn’t any good at ball sports. He’s on a nice, inclusive football team but I don’t think he loves it (he never practices kicking a ball around outside of it, unless with a friend who wants to and even then it’s short lived) and I’ve noticed this term (just started Y5) that some of the more talented boys are getting really frustrated when they lose, and he’s definitely the weakest player on their team so I’m concerned their anger is directed towards him, and he’ll start to be really disliked.

I’m thinking of gently suggesting this is his last season. He does swimming lessons which he’s fine at but nothing amazing, and I can occasionally drag him to Junior Park run. He also goes to a gymnastics club once a week, he’s pretty rubbish but it can only be a positive thing for his strength and core, and due to the nature of it I don’t worry about him getting targeted for letting the team down.

Oh, solidarity, it's so hard!
My DS loved scootering at that age and still rides his bike. Other than that, very difficult. He is very aware of his limitations and too embarrassed to do much team sports, although he did quite like playing defence in hockey!
He did trampolining for ages but was not good at it.
We also play football at the park or he'll throw the ball for the dog a lot.

Mine is also addicted to screens 🙈

Mine also plays hockey, he struggled a bit for a few years but stuck with it and the club were very supportive and he still plays as an adult. Swimming and cycling were a real struggle though, he can do both but not well (could never get the proper technique to pass the grades in swimming), it’s definitely different things for different people. He can ice skate, paddle board and kayak.

Our dyspraxic DS now 12 does golf, trampolining, swim lessons, football coaching 121 session instead of a team which is better for his confidence and he also really loves badminton. I think the shuttlecock moves slowly enough for him to be able to get underneath it and he's joined a mixed ability club which he enjoys.

We've done lots of individual sports and lessons so he's been able to learn at his own pace.

He's asked to go on the school ski trip so has been having individual ski lessons at the council run ski centre and he's doing really well. His instructor knows that just having the time spent on putting boots on and doing them up properly, carrying skis, learning how to use a button lift etc will all be quite overwhelming at once so he's been learning things gradually so by February he'll feel confident with the basics.

His football coach is the same, they concentrate on the core skills at his pace and it's meant he's got the confidence to hold his own a little more in his PE lessons than he used to. We're really proud of how hard he's tried at everything and the progress he's made.

He went to a go karting party recently and I was worried as wasn't sure how he'd find it following a very unsuccessful dodgems experience where he couldn't really steer and got flustered and upset but he loved it!! I'm sure his overall coordination is improving now he's getting older and it's great to see his confidence grow!

DS seems quite good at steering, go kart type things etc. It blows my mind how differently DCD children can be affected.

Does anyone else’s tend to use their hands to climb stairs (at home rather than in dirty public places thankfully)? It frustrates me as he’s doing himself no favours in terms of strength/core/balance by taking that easy way out every time, so I gave him a bit of a talking to about it this evening and feel a bit guilty now, even though it’s in his best interest.

I think my DS has also improved slightly as a year ago, the OT assessment put him on the 2nd centile overall for motor, which I was sad about and quite surprised as given he CAN do things like ride a bike and swim, I didn’t think he would be so badly affected. But I know in a year this has improved as his latest appointment with the paediatrician (to get the actual diagnosis in writing) did a couple of quicker tests but she said he’s improved.

It’s been really refreshing to chat with other parents of DCD children, I don’t know any in real life.

Dancing - had to work very hard but it's paid off. She's a very high standard and Excellent for her strength, and shes often complimented for her perseverance. Her dance teacher noticed early on she needed to repeat the movements more times than others and worked with her.

Also, randomly, climbing! Absolutely loves it.

I think for dyspraxic people the key is that individual sports are better, and you have to find something that you love enough to put in the considerable extra effort. For me it was ice skating and horse riding, for my DD it's dancing and climbing.

Rugby

Oh skiing! My DS loved it. I wish I could afford to take him more.

He said it was easy as he could just replace his feet with skis, which I think shows what it must be like to be dyspraxic as I don't feel like skis are in control anywhere near the level of my feet

My DS used to do that on stairs or ask to be carried and when I asked him it turned out to be he was worried about his feet missing the steps and falling

I hadn't realised how much my DS masked til he saw the OT. Even now he doesn't like eating certain food because he can't manage the cutlery well for example.

My dyspraxic child was a daughter but she loved dancing, rubbish at sports but she has a medical reason for that. I'm also dyspraxic and played hockey well. I think the key is to have a sport where fine movement make a huge difference, sports where a bit of power is helpful are better.

Mine loves his bike (downhill mountain biking) and indoor climbing. We had the exact same issue with football @freespirit333 . But fortunately he gave up of his own accord before his (very lovely and accommodating) team mates finally lost their patience.

Dyspraxia combined with ADHD had meant that martial arts were not a success when he was younger. He’s enjoyed Scouts though.

Can I ask what made you think there was something that needed investigating/diagnosing and at what age?

Mine are both dyspraxic but very different.

My DD1 has poor proprioception - she doesn't know where her limbs are, very accident prone. Poor fine skills too, dangerous in kitchen with sharp knives. Struggles with following instructions in order, sensitivity to taste and textures.

Dd2 has more problems with balance, at 20 still needs to hold bannisters coming down stairs and prefers the 2 feet on each step method. Struggles with cutlery but safe in the kitchen. Could not do recorder or piano.

Both had lots of swimming lessons and are nice but not fast swimmers. However 'should' be better given the tuition they had.

Any form of physical activity is good, it doesn't have to be competitive. Both mine would have benefitted from yoga too but for various reasons it never happened.

She swims 2x a week with a club that have a disability stream (she also has ASD). Interestingly quite a lot of swimmers seem to have DCD. She's not amazing but really likes it and it's non competitive. We're lucky to have the club though, but have a look around in your area. She does paddleboarding in the summer and parkrun. Also enjoys hiking.

Her swimming coach also recommends trampoline.

Horse riding was a success when we lived in another country but they found it dull when they moved back to the UK- progress too slow, not enough fun and fat, slow ponies (your riding school mileage may vary but it's ££££ unless they are really enjoying it).

Would he try BMX racing if he's good on a bike? My non DCD child does BMX but I think it would also suit; they're very good at breaking techniques down and are very inclusive- definitely a few ND kids doing it with DC2. Also it looks pretty cool.

Lifting weights would be brilliant for core, power etc. but maybe one for when a little older e.g. 13.

It’s tricky isn’t it and so sad when you see it affecting friendships. Both my DS and I have dyspraxia. I think the most important things are motivation - because it takes much longer to learn the skills to participate let alone be good so you need to want to do it - and 1:1 coaching - to break things down as they won’t be learnt intuitively. And perhaps waiting a bit and coming back to things when older. Good luck.

I started asking about it when DS was about 3 as he wouldn't put his hands out when he fell and banged his head all the time. HV wasn't concerned.

He started falling really behind in Yr 3/4 at school as he couldn't really write which led to investigations for dyslexia. Profile wasn't typical for dyslexia, but not standard. They suggested seeing GP who noticed low muscle tone and referred to OT (eventually after community paeds bounced the referral ). So he was diagnosed then.

It's not been easy at all as school doesn't seem as familiar with how to support dyspraxia.

My son with dyspraxia struggled with swimming, biking, soccer, driving, but was bizarrely good at dance, martial arts, and sports involving aiming and throwing. He's also left-handed. Very idiosyncratic, I think.

We focused on non team sports so there wasnt an issue with letting team members down if he didnt do well. Indoor climbing, cross country running, cycling and swimming are all sports he did for years. He loves football and now referees as a way of being involved with the game without playing as he finds sports with balls pretty difficult.

My dyspraxic daughter, now 16, used to get picked on awfully at primary school as she was so bad at ball sports, always the last to be picked etc. However, we practiced with her loads, we were overseas with limited facilities for anything, so we had a bottomless bucket on a hook on the fence that she practiced "netball" and we also had a massive quince tree, so when that was in season, we'd toss those towards her and she'd "bat" them down the hill. She actually got really quite good!😁

She also did ballet and then ballet and dance when we moved back to the UK for secondary school which really helped co-ordination. She did all the usual sports with limited success but seemed to have a reasonable ability in both lacrosse and randomly, cricket! She turned out to be a decent bowler!

She's not brilliant at riding a bike and did try horse riding, but she didn't like kicking the horse! 🙄She has also started doing Parkrun with me but has really poor muscle tone and pectus excavatum which is making things quite difficult for her breathing but she ploughs on and is definitely improving.

The best thing you can do is let him try everything and he'll find something he likes. Although, whilst not diagnosed, I'm pretty sure I'm also dyspraxic, but I've got to 52 being useless at all sports and I turned out okay. Some people just never get better! I jog, mostly on my own and that's okay!

My son (17) has dyspraxia and dyslexia. Fine motor affected the most. He played rugby from 5 to 16 and did well because of his size (v tall) rather than ball skills. Now he walks a lot while listening to audio books (massive Audio "reader"). I think they find their own thing in the end and this is his.

I’d second this, DS has hypermobility and although it’s not especially severe he was advised to avoid trampolining. He doesn’t cycle much - never been great at cycling plus plays large brass instrument that couldn’t go back and forth by bike. Instrumental playing has been very good for him -I know we are talking sports here but I thought I’d throw it in the activities mix.

He walks miles and has strong legs, but can get muscle strain even though you can’t see the obvs hypermobility in the same way as upper limbs.

My dyspraxia DS now 22, was quite good at swimming, horse riding and he loved theatre group.

We tried all sorts; judo, gymnastics, archery were all not great and he became despondent very quickly. He can ride a bike but although he is confident I worry he doesn't seem to stable to me. He has struggled and given up learning to drive. He does sometimes take himself off for a run and does some gym but not a great deal.

He also took up piano when he was young and while he's never going to be brilliant it brings him a lot of pleasure. He is an amazing artist so from a very young age he would sit and draw - we were told he would never be able to write his fine motor skills were so bad, and now he does the most intricate drawings, but he also has ASD and drawing was his obsession so he literally has spent hours a day from being about 7 years old just drawing pictures.

I think there is a BMX bike club he could go to nearby on a Saturday morning, which at the moment is always dedicated to football!

My DS was late to do everything gross motor wise, but never quite late enough to cause concerns with HCPs. 9 months to sit up, 11 months to crawl, Walked at 19 months, couldn’t jump or run properly at the 27 month check. But it was confusing at first as he was ok with fine motor, he developed the pincer grip on time and was able to dress himself, do Lego age 4, rode his bike straight away age 4. In fact that last one I think made me think he didn’t have it for a while! But then I could see physically how he was compared with peers, and also having DS2 who definitely doesn’t have DCD and developed gross motor skills very normally, and is just aware of his body and coordination in a way DS1 never was. We were already on the referral pathway for ADHD/ASD and turned out it was very easy to self refer to OT via the GP so we did that.