Balance issues for a six year old

[bigmouthstrikesagain]

My dd1 is six and in year two. She is naturally clumsy and so are many others in my family (including me), but dd1 seems to be more uncoordinated than most. She still struggles with getting dressed and I noticed again this morning how she was unable to stand on one foot even momentarily. She loves to dance and prance around but she is such a large child (well above average height, sturdy, broad of shoulder and hips) she frequently stamps on others feet and falls over hard.

How do you distinguish between clumsy and too clumsy - should I be taking her to the GP and getting advice - I don't want to worry her but I do want to help her. Any advice? Thank you - I started this thread in behaviour - but it is probably better suited to health. She does often have very waxy ears (though not ear infections) and I wonder if this is having an effect?

Have you thought about dyspraxia?

My DS is six and naturally clumsy, like me - and always has been; his gross motor skills have tended to lag behind DD's (she is 16 months younger). I don't know how you access the right sort of help in the UK; we are expat (and I knew people in the 'therapist' community) but what we did was involving an OT (occupational therapist) a couple of years ago when he was first at school.

The tests she did showed that his fine motor skills were actually ok (v. unusual, if there are gross motor issues!) but for gross motor skills he was on the 3rd percentile. She came to see him regularly for a while and we had exercises to do with him - core strength related, mostly - and his school did daily balance/coordination work with all of the children in the first two years which helped. I have also sent him to any 'activity' he fancies; football, gymnastics, tennis, whatever; more than I normally would to get the level of exercise up*, as well as encouraging him to play outside. He's improved a lot; OT was very impressed at how much he improved in first few months, have seen her a couple of times since then just to make sure he isn't slipping backwards.

However if you think there may be medical problems (like the ears) obviously would be worth getting those checked out first

*and to do it before he gets too self conscious about it - and hopefully improve some of his coordination so that when he does get to self conscious age, which seems to be around now, the gap is smaller....

Good luck :)