Could my 6yo have dyspraxia?

[onedaymyprintswillcome]

My 6yo DS is a very bright boy, no concerns with his academic development at all. He’s a happy, sociable boy with lots of friends who loves school.

However, his physical movements sometimes make me wonder if he could have dyspraxia. He is:

• still not easily able to walk downstairs one foot then the next. He bounces down on his bum at home, or really has to concentrate on it otherwise
• struggles with catching/kicking/throwing
• an extremely messy eater, struggles to use a knife and fork. The way he holds them is like a toddler
• trips and stumbles fairly often
• was very slow to jump with both feel leaving the ground
• finds scissors tricky, as well as getting dressed - things like zips are hard for him

However, his writing/drawing/colouring is neat. Does anyone have any experience/insight of symptoms at 6? Many thanks in advance

Both my two have motor skills issues (bottom 1%).

DD1 has diagnosis of dyspraxia. Along with poor motor skills, she has poor executive functioning, inference and fussiness on taste/textures. She got a full set of GCSEs & passed her driving test first time.

DD2 has diagnosis of Developmental Coordination Disorder. At 16 she still struggles with stairs. She also struggles with things like telling the time & spelling.

I don't know if the difference in the 'label' is significant or just different experts.

Friends DC also has dyspraxia, absolutely atrocious handwriting. Got 2xA* and 2xA grades at A level.

Sorry, long way of saying that dyspraxia is definitely a spectrum of things. I'd ask GP or SENCO at school for an OT referral.

Thanks so much for your information! I’ll definitely contact the GP in the new year. There’s enough on the NHS list of symptoms (trouble with stairs, jumping/kicking/catching/throwing, other physical games) where I can see he struggles, plus his teacher said she’s noticed he can be clumsy and bumps into things quite a lot. When he’s using cutlery he physically can’t position his hands/wrists in anywhere near the right position to cut food properly bless him. Worth a check with them anyway

We used to joke that DD1 could hurt herself just sat at the dining room table. DD2 not accident prone at all.
DD1 is OK with cutlery but unsafe in the kitchen. DD2 is rubbish with cutlery but safe in the kitchen
Both their handwriting is OK as we gave it a lot of time and effort. DD1 moved to a computer for most GCSEs, DD2 didn't take to typing at all.
Both are competent at swimming, though not nearly as good as they 'should' be for the hours spent in lessons and us going as a family. Both learned to cycle though neither enjoys it or particularly confident.

You get better at what you practice. But you can't practice everything so you have to work out what's important. There are some exercises that can be done, iirc cross-body ones are meant to be helpful eg picking things up that are to the left of you with your right hand and vice versa.
Look up proprioception.

Nurturing self esteem can be important.
Poor motor skills can be so obvious.
Maybe less so if you are good academically and have friends though.