ds has no balance, cant even walk in a straight line

[Momma3]

am stressing because the doctor does not seem concerned about my sons lack of balance.
he cant walk in a straight line and staggers a lot. i often have to hold his hand just to keep him upright, he falls a lot because he is so wobbly. he has had his ears and eyes checked and has been seen by a paediatritian about this problem (who said is was developmental and left it at that). i am not a natural worrier and this is stressing me out! anyone suffer the same or have a child with the same problems? ds is nearly 6.

he should be checked out. It could be anything from mild cerebral palsy to dyspraxia.
If a cause like that is found then seeing an OT and physio could help. Stupid doctor.

sounds like dyspraxia like nmc said

thanks, what is dyspraxia? and are there other symptoms?

Speech and language

Developmental verbal dyspraxia is a type of ideational dyspraxia, causing linguistic or phonological impairment. This is the favoured term in the UK; however it is also sometimes referred to as articulatory dyspraxia and in the USA the usual term is apraxia of speech [2]. Key problems include:

• Difficulties controlling the speech organs.
• Difficulties making speech sounds
• Difficulty sequencing sounds o Within a word o Forming words into sentences
• Difficulty controlling breathing and phonation.
• Slow language development.
• Difficulty with feeding.

[edit] Fine motor control

Difficulties with fine motor co-ordination lead to problems with handwriting, which may be due to either ideational or ideo-motor difficulties. Problems associated with this area may include:

• Learning basic movement patterns.
• Developing a desired writing speed.
• The acquisition of graphemes ? e.g. the letters of the Latin alphabet, as well as numbers.
• Establishing the correct pencil grip
• Hand aching while writing

[edit] Whole body movement, coordination, and body image

Issues with gross motor coordination mean that major developmental targets including walking, running, climbing and jumping are affected. One area of difficulty involves associative movement, where a passive part of the body moves or twitches in response to a movement in an active part. For example, the support arm and hand twitching as the dominant arm and hand move, or hands turning inwards or outwards to correspond with movements of the feet. Problems associated with this area may include:

• Poor timing
• Poor balance (sometimes even falling over in mid-step) Tripping over one's own feet is also not uncommon. [2]
• Difficulty combining movements into a controlled sequence.
• Difficulty remembering the next movement in a sequence.
• Problems with spatial awareness, or proprioception
• Some people with dyspraxia have trouble picking up and holding onto simple objects [3] due to poor muscle tone.
• This disorder can cause an individual to be clumsy to the point of knocking things over and bumping into people accidentally.
• Some dyspraxics have difficulty in determining left from right.[citation needed]
• Cross-laterality, ambidexterity, and a shift in the preferred hand are also common in people with dyspraxia.[citation needed]
• Dyspraxics may also have trouble determining the distance between them and other objects.

thanks, is something to think about.....

He should at the very least have a full neurological examination done by a peadiatrician. How old is he and has he always been like this?

sorry - just seen his age.

Has the school any concerns?

my son does not have the best balance is he almost 5. he used to fall all the time and fall quite badly - does not have dyspraxia as has none of the other symptons. I have recently had him assess by a podiatrist she had explained how his develoment is causing the issues with his balance. it might be worth getting a podiatrist to have a look at him.

should be 'physical development'.

hi there dont know if any of you will read this, thanks for your advice, pushed me to get a second opinion. on 26th jan ds was diagnosed with a brain tumour. owe u all. xx

so so sorry

Momma3 didn't see your orginal thread.
for your ds how is he doing ?

not too bad, just getting over the op! treatment starting on 17th march. he is such a star!

Poor little fellow, he's been through a lot.

And you too, of course.