How often does your three year old fall over?

[Butterpie]

DD1 is covered in little bruises and scratches- she seems to fall over, right to the ground, at least three or four times a day. I have watched her standing still in the middle of a room and then falling over. She walks straight into walls, misses chairs and so on. It is quite cute and funny, and she seems ok with it, but she is starting to look like she has been attacked!

This is just normal three year old, isn't it?

I only ask because I'm dyspraxic. Not that i'm sure it would do any good to get her diagnosed if she is anyway-she won't be going to school so she won't need a diagnosis for extra support or whatever. DP was epileptic as well, but I think it is more co-ordination than actually losing conciousness.

This is a downside of having her at home- nursery workers see so many children they would be more likely to be able to judge things like this.

She has recently been playing outside a lot more and is covered in injuries. I sometimes feel a bit worried people will think she is being abused!

Is she like this all the time, or does she go through phases of it? My 3 DDs seem to go through a clumsy phase when they having a growth spurt. It's almost like they can't keep up with how fast their bodies are growing, so can't get their limbs in the right place at the right time.

My dd did this. Turned out to be due to hypermobility and poor proprioception. Has got a lot better with puberty, though we still have a deal with the school that she does not use the stairs for fear of accidents. For her, well worth diagnosis as proprioception can be improved with exercises.

Would add that as she got older she ended up in A&E several times after more serious falls.

She does go to playgroups, and even a dancing lesson, as well as playing with friends at each others houses, but it is so hard to judge- all kids fall over when dancing or climbing etc. She does seem to have more bruises than most, but then she is very pale...

Her drawing and writing comes and goes too-sometimes she can copy whole words or pictures, other times she just scribbles.

It dies sound a bit more than the norm.

Why does she not go to nursery? It would probably be useful for her to spend time among her peers, and to be observed by people who are familiar with how children move.

My DDs, including my 3 year old fall over a lot - I joke that they could fall off the floor. DD2 (3) is currently sporting 2 grazed knees, a scratched leg, and a fetching cut to the temple where she ran into the corner of a table at the garden centre .

She did go to a nursery for a little while, but it just didn't suit us as a family and made her tired and miserable.

I think she is too young for any kind of diagnosis anyway, isn't she? As she won't be going to school, hopefully we can work with her strengths and weaknesses educationally anyway, I'm more curious than anything.

If she does turn out like me, it will be very interesting to see in what ways. She is still in nappies half the time, apparently I was the same, and she does the thing i used to do of completely zoning out for short periods as well.

its like you just described my dd butterpie her school did ask lots of questions about her falling over and the fact she cant quite get to grips with drawing/writing. also asked if she crawled as a baby. i didnt realise they might be talking about dyspraxia. ill keep watching this thread to see if i can pick up any useful tips.

My 3 yr old DD still falls over A LOT! She has hypermobility and low muscle tone around her trunk area. She sometimes just suddenly falls over just turning around and often looks unsteady - she usually falls over when she runs. It worries me to death and I have to follow her around when she's at the park.

I know what you mean about the bruises - we get through a lot of arnica in our house!

Maybe you could look at getting her assessed before she starts school Butterpie - might be useful to get some OT support?

She won't be starting school though (at least we are definitely starting off out of school), which is why I'm a bit unsure if we need to do anything at all.

Do you think dyspraxia is likely then? What would happen if she did get diagnosed- is it just an extra support at school thing or is there out of school stuff too?