What's the best approach with clumsy kids?

[mayonaise]

My dd is 10 and really really clumsy. She has always been like this. As she was my first child I thought it was normal to have to walk behind your 3 year old when they went on a slide, until I had 2 more who actually knew to hold on.

DH and I try to let her do things for herself. She is a now aware that she seems to have more mishaps than others, and gets a bit self-conscious and asks for help too much (imo). Today she was trying to cut a scone and it went flying across the room. We have this kind of thing about 20 times a day.

I'm not sure whether it's best to help her, explain to her how to do something, or just let her get on with it. She doesn't like the last option, and this also means a lot of mess and breakages. I know my parents think we should just do things for her.

I don't think she has anything like dyspraxia as she is very methodical and organised and has no problems with school work. It seems like more of a lack of common sense of body awareness?

Anyone have any experience of this? I don't want to stress her but I think it's important that she learns how to do basic things.

My dd was like this when she started school, for two or three years - the teachers also noticed it.

My GP referred her to the hospital for a paediatric consultation just to eliminate the possibility of it being neurological damage/disorder (possibly born with it). They found nothing and she has more or less grown out of it now.

Is this something you could talk to your GP about, and perhaps have your dd assessed, if only for the reassurance that there is nothing seriously wrong.

Some people are naturally clumsy - dh is always banging his head. Hopefully someone can give you some practical advice.

This is a hard one. My DD is 'clumsy' and accident prone because she has mild neurological difficulties - from being starved of oxygen at birth

She's 3 now and I do have to follow her around more closely than the average 3 yr old and she falls over much more often than most. She also drops things, spills drinks and takes longer to do fine motor tasks.

Like you say mayonaise - I want her to do things for herself but is really hard not to step in when you can see an accident about to happen!

Some kids do lack a sense of their bodies in space. I think it is something that an Occupational Therapist can help with if you become more concerned about it?

Interesting, as I had to have an emergency caesarean as her heart rate was falling during labour, although after she was born they seemed to think everything was ok.

In all other ways she is fine, and, although I say it myself, seriously clever in a purely academic way.

I could think about an OT assessment, I guess. However she is quite self-conscious and a real perfectionist so I would have to think about the appropriate way to approach it.

Hopefully any health professional would be very experienced and sensitive in how they dealt with your dd - I was very happy with the way my dd was treated at the hospital.

They did spot a minor problem (not neurological, but to do with hypermobility of her joints which contributes in a small way to clumsiness).

I went away with sheets of exercises to do at home and other advice, so hopefuly they would offer some constructive, practical ways to help her improve co-ordination, etc, whether it was a neurological cause or, as in our case, another issue.

I would say yes to an OT asessment. They can give you all sorts of exercises to increase her co-ordination and body awareness

It is only as an adult that I have come to realise that a lot of my clumsiness and inability was due to hypermobility of wrists and fingers, especially the outer finger joints which are very weak and point the wrong way so to speak. I wish I had known; then I could just have shrugged my shoulders and realised that some of the things I failed at simply weren't for me.

If you talk to your GP, they can refer you to a community paed who has links to the OT.
My son is mildly dyspraxic.. he's not clumsy exactly, just been unable to isolate specific movements. So everything is moving and twitching whilst he's trying to write for example. The OT was fantastic at providing resources, exercises, help and encouragement. It's well worth pushing to try and see them. I have seen massive improvements this year, as has the school

Thanks, I'll think more about an OT assessment.

It's hard to describe her clumsiness - she's not uncoordinated as such, she copes well with sport and dance classes, and fine motor skills for handwriting are excellent. She doesn't seem to SEE how to do things, and needs to be shown every small step several times before she will even have a go. This has been the case for using a knife and fork, pouring a drink, getting dressed, carrying things without dropping them. It also extends a bit to trying to do things she's not sure she can manage - she will jump from climbing frames which are way too high for example, then seem surprised when she gets hurt.

I guess we're noticing it more now that she's older and we expect her to do more for herself. It would also be great if she could help the younger dcs sometimes, but unfortunately it's more likely to be the other way around!