Hello all,
I’m hoping for some advice here. My dd is a talented dancer and was a successful rhythmic gymnast from the age of 6. Her dream came true when she was awarded an MDS at Tring Park. Now she is living more independently while boarding, it has become much more apparent that she struggles with many aspects of her daily life. She is very disorganised, constantly loses things, especially important things like clothes, and school passes to get her around the school. She is very untidy due to her lack of organisation skills and struggles with putting things on hangers and simply folding clothes confuses her.
This has caused much frustration for me for years but guilt for being frustrated as well. She has not improved with age. She puts shoes on the wrong feet sometimes and doesn’t notice, and gets confused with left and right. She has a phenomenal talent and is very captivating when she performs.
However, various dance teachers have asked her if she has dyspraxia or been assessed for it.
She is struggling with choreography and remembering moves, steps and directions. On a recent parent’s watch day, it was clear to me that she needs help.
Rather than remembering the routines, she was looking at other to copy and just looked totally lost at times even though she was trying her very best to impress. I know with the right support, she will be an amazingly talented dancer, she has it but this issue is holding her back. I feel so sorry for her and I can see it has massively impacted her confidence.
When she was a rhythmic gymnast, her coaches were aware she learned differently and would teach her in 10 second chunks and wouldn’t move on until she had mastered her moves. She learned the art of improvisation and in competitions she would forget parts of her routine but deliver a flawless improv that no one noticed but her coaches, even doing that she won a number of championships and was top 10 in the UK for her age last year. Has anyone been through anything similar with a talented child and could you impart any words of wisdom that could help? I will speak to the school nurse to initiate an assessment but not sure what that process looks like. I don’t want her award jeopardised if I could help her in anyway with extra support. The limitations are that she is boarding so finding a private dance teacher to work with her issues will be a challenge as she can only do that on weekends when she comes home and finding the right teacher who understands etc. any thoughts welcome 😊.