Tell me about your dyspraxic child as a toddler?

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Ds1 is just beginning to hit the system with assessments for his issues with physical development. We're still waiting on his first appointment to come through with the therapy services.

He drops things, crashes into people and objects, stands on things, is so clumsy dressing himself, isn't yet fully dry (he has 'dribbles'), he falls, stumbles. He kind of lurches when he walks or runs. His limbs are all over the place. He's 3y2m and has just in the last couple of months learnt to jump.

He doesnt draw or colour. He does scribble but has limited attention for it. He knows about 6 or 7 letter sounds and is mentally with it.

He will glue and paint but it will go everywhere despite his best efforts. He gets food everywhere when eating despite being sensible about it.

He also has very little stamina for walking and his legs often ache.

I'm just wondering whether this could be it.

It’s odd but our quote severely dyspraxic daughter was an early walker who went from sitting to walking a good distance across the grass at Bowood House an 11 months. She’s always had amazing determination and stamina so long distance walking was never an issue; we all walk for pleasure, so it came with being part of the family.
She was dry day and night by 26 months but sleeping has always been an issue.

She fell over more than others because her spatial awareness is rubbish. She wasn’t good at visualisation and still can’t follow directions well. She could dress herself but couldn’t ever get the clothes in the right way or they were back to front.

It has never really affected fine motor skills although anything requiring neatness was more of a challenge. Ball sports were hard. She was never chosen for the netball team so developed other interests and sports where you weren’t picked. Her ability to focus and stay on task is inspiring; at three and four she used to spend two or three hours doing her homework from nursery (which was just a picture and writing her news). As a child she’d be really stubborn about not giving up on something until it was finished or as near perfect as possible - whether that be writing a poem, knitting a dolls scarf or roller skating.

Restaurants used to be a nightmare as she invariably knocked a drink over. We learned to go to restaurants and ask for bigger tables to reduce the risk. She was always covered in food or had wet dresses and t shirts from spilled drinks. School uniform could never be worn twice.

As she got older she learned coping strategies. High heels were always an issue but with several years practice and lessons from our other daughter’s dance teacher, she manages fine now. Certainly it hasn’t limited her achievement but there we’re times it was hard to watch her struggles and not intervene.

I think you can’t guess at a diagnosis. You need to wait and just accept some of it is normal toddler messiness and whatever the cause you support and encourage them to do their best. You don’t stop them doing things because it’s a bit hard.

He's brilliant but his brother is 2 so I'm really noticing the difference. I find the fact that he gets so frustrated quite tough but he also has some gastric and other potential issues going on. Eg his growth is poor

Interestingly (or not) our daughter threw up more than the average child too. No growth problems though. She’s tall and always was.

It’s hard but you cannot do anything but wait for a proper assessment. We put it off but a physiotherapist friend pointed it out and it all fell into place. She taught us lots of things we could do to encourage normal development and to retrain the neural pathways. I don’t know whether she’d have improved with age anyway but it’s much less of a problem now. She still needs SatNav, she still can’t ice skate. Multitasking can be a challenge but she’s learned to be less chaotic and rarely spills things now. She can’t do mental images of places at all.

Learning anatomy was a challenge (she finds left and right hard) but she got there. As a child her shoes had a L and R inside and we taught her to hold her hand with her thumb extended down so she could match the L shape.

Hope you get the answers you need to do the best for him.

She used to get very frustrated sometimes and threw almighty paddy’s sometimes. We just let them pass uncommented on until she was calm enough to sort herself out.

I think the growth issues are related to the gastric problems.

He very noticeably moves differently compared to his peers- really stands out.

I'm scared we wont be approved for assessment because I had to do a self referral. The HV and paediatrician both told me to. As did preschool but the form asked for evidence and I have none. It's a 14 week wait to even be triaged so I'm a bit apprehensive about it

We do support him to do normal every day stuff. Finally he can put his shoes on. This is at odds with his personality because he really wants to be independent and is capable all apart from physically.

Getting him to dress himself is very painful fucking frustrating but he does it with encouragement and support

dyspraxiausa.org/symptoms/early-symptoms/

This is a comprehensive list of the symptoms you might see.

Like CherryPavlova’s, my DD was also an early walker, but took forever to ride a bike. In addition to the usual motor coordination problems, she had no sense of danger, sleep difficulties, temper tantrums and sensory issues. She also has dyslexia and visual stress.

Despite these difficulties, she excelled academically and is now an adult with a successful career; however, she can still trip over air and is incapable of carrying a cup of tea without spilling it. Since she was diagnosed, I have also realised that I am probably dyspraxic too.

I feel your pain. It’s hard to watch them struggling but we have to do it and allow them to eventually succeed. Like all children we have to build resilience by allowing them to overcome difficulties by not rushing in. That’s a huge ask sometimes.

My husband can easily spill a cup of coffee down the wall in an empty room and not even notice

I find it challenging that he keeps hurting me. Like headbutting me, hitting me with something or the like. Something in that really triggers me and it's constant. He's not deliberately hurtful. He also hurts his 2 year old brother very regularly

DS1 is now 12. He also has ADHD.
He still can't tell left from right without thinking about it. He spills things by just looking at them. He has no awareness of where he is in space.
He was assessed as being on the 0.05 centile for both fine and gross motor skills.

I went school with a boy who had dyspraxia. He got all A's in his GCSEs and A levels. Went Uni and achieved a first.

Mine is now 9. He was actually ahead of the curve on most of baby milestones - rolled over (both ways) at 10 weeks, first of the NCT cohort to sit, crawl, stand and walk but was 7 before he could ride a bike. Wasn't interested in drawing/ colouring at nursery or even infant school. His writing is still poor and drawing is still childish. He struggled with shoes on the right feet, clothes the right way round/ inside out. Knife and fork eating was a struggle and only in the last few months have I been able to send him in the same school jump twice ( usually too covered in dinner to rewear). He was dry day and night at just turned 3. The personal space thing is a nightmare. He bumps into people, crowds them by standing too close and is forever accidentally headbutting, elbowing etc. He falls over a lot and drops/ spills things. But his reading age is way above his actual age, as is his maths. He is kind, funny, intelligent and very loving. He is also a bit of a quirky odd ball but is now learning how to cope with the challenges. His reception teacher picked up on the fact he couldn't sit cross legged in his first week at school, something nursery had not noticed in two years. He is a Lego obsessive and able to handle tiny pieces but still struggles to throw/catch or to kick a ball. He struggled with turn taking, waiting in queues and with not just speaking everything that passes through his mind but these are improving with practice and age. Like many conditions there are a wide range of potential symptoms and every dyspraxic with have their own personal mix of what they struggle with and how much of a challenge each hurdle is. My (almost certainly dyspraxic but never diagnosed) DH can't walk across without bumping into something, knocking something over or hurting himself but can paint model in tiny breath taking detail.

For what it’s worth my DS was assessed when he was 3 and it was determined he was just somewhat behind the curve with his motor skill development rather than dyspraxic.

At that age he couldn’t jump, couldn’t dress himself at all, only scribbled, struggled to use any cutlery, stumbled a lot, couldn’t control a scooter or use any kind of ride-on toy independently...etc.

He only learned to dress himself just before he started school (with a lot of encouragement!) and learnt to do buttons just before his 6th birthday. His fine motor skills are still holding back his writing a bit but improving. He now scoots brilliantly but can’t ride a bike yet at 6. Basically everything is falling into place but just more slowly than average.

Could do jigsaws and lego but struggled with clothes, fastenings etc. Disliked drawing and colouring. Struggled with pedalling, jumping, kicking a ball, throwing/catching, hopping but could climb and move a swing. Never walked, always ran. Vocab and prereading skills very good but struggled with pronouncing some longer words. Could not lick ice cream or lollies.

Thank you all for the information.

Did your children "look different"? Ds1 just looks 'different' when he runs/walks

No, she was a beautiful little one. Tall, slender, right eyed, blonde curls. She had a persistent diastasis recti so always had weak abdominal muscles and a slightly rounded tummy. She’s worked hard at strengthening it as a teenager and young adult and it’s pretty flat pre wedding now. I suspect pregnancy will be a challenge though.

She’s also hypermobile so can move bits of herself in very strange ways. It’s never caused problems but gives her a good few party tricks.
Her walking gait has always been normal. Running a bit odd maybe but more to do with worrying about falling over, I think. She’s never been a great runner but does park run now.

It’s never limited her in anyway but we’ve probably needed a few more xrays with her than some children have.

Ds1 just moves differently. Limbs flailing. He kind of just stumbles everywhere and lurches as he walks and runs. He trips and falls a lot

Yes to awkward running gait and needing to put more effort to less effect.

My 9 year old DS is just in the system now after school raised concerns about fine and gross motor skills. As a child he didn't look different when walking etc but was slow to walk, never pulled himself up to standing or cruised furniture and was very slow to self feed. Struggles with stairs, sometimes trips forwards when going up and does the rest on all fours. He cannot ride a bike or swim, he cannot hold a pencil in a tripod grip, sticking, cutting, glueing etc at school is a challenge. Academically he is fine, meeting targets etc except handwriting. We have seen and OT and a pead doctor who has referred him on to physio and CAMHS as he has high levels of anxiety around school and some sensory issues which are getting worse. He also has low stamina and will often complain about sore legs when walking.

Looking back now I can see he was struggling as a small child, but as he was my first born I had nothing to compare him to. My other son is 3 years younger and it was really as he started to develop we noticed how much easier he found and still finds things than his brother.

Lots of temper tantrums, a bit of a stammer (which we resolved through SALT), high energy, walked at 11 months but got stuck on swimming lessons until he had 1-1. Not great with cutlery. Wicked sense of humour. A bit obsessive with his hobbies/interests.

He’s 17 now, still struggles with impulse control and can be quite hot headed. He has a very quirky world view - no sense of hierarchy. Still can’t eat spaghetti.