Clumsy / awkward running - 2.5 year old

[Tiredoutmum]

Hi

Just looking for some reassurance / any similar experiences: my 2.5 year old son has a very awkward / clumsy run (a combination of being a his toes turning in and therefore his legs almost crossing over each other to trip him up, and extreme twisting of his top half and / or his bottom half so he looks like he's going to lose control). It's worse when he gets over excited and he flaps about as well. I've been to see a paedetrician to rule out dyspraxia and they didn't seem concerned but suggested he will probably grow out of it and if not to come back in 6 months time. He's large for his age (on the top percentile) so has a very heavy frame to carry around, and quite short legs). I just wondered if anyone else has had the same with their kids and did they grow out of it? I'm finding it difficult to watch him and am now starting to get really paranoid that I had one glass too many when breastfeeding and have affected his gross motor skills.....

Thanks :-)

My dd runs like this too - her legs seem stiff and she intoes when she speeds up from a walking pace - although not when she's walking funnily enough! She just looks clumsy and unco-ordinated and she is also tall for her age.

She's nearly 3 and it is getting slightly better but still looks odd. Was interested to see you had referral to look at dyspraxia - were there any other concerns? My dd just seems to be physically quite weak and unco-ordinated but has no other symptoms!

At the time I was also worried about his talking which seemed slow but has since righted itself and he's caught and and in some cases overtaken his peers.

They don't tend to diagnose dyspraxia in under 3s but the reason the weren't concerned were that he showed no other symptoms (he can climb stairs well, can build a tower, hold a pen and generally has very good fine motor skills).

He only crawled for a short period ad was fairly slow to walk at 17 months so am hoping it'll right itself...

It seems to be worse some days than others which is odd.

My DS is 2.2 and walks like a younger toddler. He is all sort of flapping arms and tiny steps. He does not really run either, he speeds up and is still slow. I put it down to being such a late walker - 19 months and never crawling, he was a bum shuffler. His legs are also short (like mine!) but he is not tall.

He starts pre-school in September and I am midly concerned he won't be able to keep him physically.

My dd is the same - some days worse than others! She also talks ok - less clear than my ds but has a good vocab. Her fine motor skills aren't brilliant tbh - hand eye co-ordination is a bit of a struggle but is getting better. She's always just seemed a bit physically slower than my ds and compared to her peers too.

Hopefully running will get better with practice!!!

The upside, of course, is that he cannot run off! My elder two were dreadful bolters.