Link between hypermobility and learning delay

[Peanuts33]

DS has hypermobility and was late walking. He didnt walk until he was two and a half. I was told by his paedatrician that because he walked late it would mean that he would be late in development of everything else, i.e. talking, communication etc. Apparently this is because he wasnt running around with his peers so therefore not communicating with them and his brain wasnt processing all the information that his peers were processing.

I've just got his first reception report and he "needs support" in two out of the three subjects.

Does anyone have experience of this and their child caught up in the end?

I've never heard that. Ds walked at 22 months. All his peers were walking by the time they were 13 months. He was speaking proper short sentences by the time he was 16 months.

He is hypermobile in all his joints. He has memory issues but those are related to his being a prem rather than hypermobile.

Should add the fact he didn't walk and all his friends did didn't affect his communicating at all. Has your ds not been able to spend time with friends etc?

my two have benign hyper mobility syndrome as have I , I walked at 10 months, dd1 at 11 months and dd2 at 12 months! HV told me when she did the various checks that my dd's were ahead with their speech for their age and both were 2 weeks early. DD1 is very bright for her age and is borderline dyslexic re spelling as am I. DD2 is average at school. So neither they nor I have been behind regarding hms (except spelling)!

yes he has spent loads of time with a close group of friends but when they were running up and down stairs and playing football in the garden etc he wouldn't join in because he couldnt walk. He tended to just stay with me. There were loads of trips to the park etc. but again they'd be running around playing hide and seek or running around in the field while he would be crawling around.

Same with ds's friends, with ds crawling after them. They would run around but come back to ds and play with him and then run off again. Ds was under the care of a cons paed from birth to 4.5 and the potential for learning delays was never mentioned. He had to have physio to get him to walk. He has trouble reading and spelling but that is due to his memory. Never any issue or mention of an issue re communicating.

I suppose you just have to get on a deal with ds as he is now rather than trying to work out why it happened in the first place. What support does he need?

what is hypermobility?

Loose joints. When I was growing up it was called being double jointed.

like arms bending the wrong way at the elbow etc etc

god I got picked on something rotten for sitting with my legs in a weird w shape at carpet time, I didn't know it had a name!

Never heard that in my life!

DD is Hypermobile, in the consultants words "very bendy"!, and is one of the more confident speakers in her class (yr2), also a good reader, speller, and quick with numeracy too.

She is limited with sports and some games, but gives everything a good go!

DD (2.9) is hyper mobile and did not walk until she was 22mths.

But was an early talker so I don't know if the two are linked sorry.

If anything DD is ahead in everything else just not her walking.

Even now she is not a good a walker as other Dcs the same age as her iyswim.

I would say though that DD is a daydreamer, and has to be made to focus before she does anything, but that might be an inherited trait.

Sherby, hypermobility in very basic simple terms is that their joints are too floppy. Each joint has a ligament and the ligaments in hypermobile people are not tight enough for want of a better explanation.

MollieO, DS was also under a speech and language therapist and she also said that his speech cd be delayed because of his hypermobility. There are ligaments in your jaw which if too floppy would affect clarity of speech. In terms of communication, I mean the way he speaks. He does talk a lot, it's just not always clear what he is saying.

Does that make sense. Not sure if I am explaining myself properly!

I guess it depends on where your child is hyper mobile...

DD is hyper mobile in her hips (badly) knees and ankles.

When she runs you can see her hips swaying if that makes sense and they don't lock in place to keep her upright.

But she is fine everywhere else.

Is your DS under the paed still? If not I would go back and get a review overall and see what they say. Dd#1 has hypermobility and I have come to learn that whilst it can exist in isolation with no other issues, it can also be a part of other problems - In DD#1s case probably dyspraxia (+other issues)

I think the connection is with hypotonia, not hypermobility. Hypotonia (low muscle tone) can cause joints to be hypermobile.

My ds1 is both hypotonic and hypermobile. It delayed his gross motor skills, delayed his ability to use force with fine motor (but not precision - he could do shape sorters and peg puzzles and pick up raisins); delayed his expressive but not his receptive speech; and delayed his social and emotional skills. It had no effect whatsoever on his intelligence, which is unusually high. He could read probably before he could speak (as soon as he could speak, he was reading...) and his maths is exceptional.

Hypotonia does put a child at risk of delays in all areas, though, because it is caused by a problem with the central nervous system, so the child's symptoms could stretch beyond the hypotonic, iyswim.

my dd4 is like that ... She didnt walk until nearly two ,hypermobile ,and has global development delays , she has also been diagnosed with autism ,so its hard to say if she will "catch up" , but she has improved lots .Has support at school , salt one-to-one .

She can write her name now, she has a couple of friends at school and can talk a little bit .

try not to worry , your dc will be fine.

look at this?

I'm an OT who did a very brief stint in paeds and remeber there being a connection between hypermobility and dyspraxia, and Developmental Coordination disorder, both of which can impact on learning.

Doesn't mean children with hypermobile joints would have the other conditions, just that they might.

rabbitstew that is interesting as DS also has low muscle tone but didnt know it had a special name. That sounds like DS. His fine motor skills are also fine but he can't ride a bike etc. He also (in my opinion) has delayed social and emotional skills.

In terms of intelligence he seems to be learning things quicker and easier than his brother did when he first started in reception and he is now near the top of the class.

MollieO I dont know yet what support he needs as only got the report today and it didnt elaborate. It was just a tick box. Am going to speak to his teacher on monday to talk about it.

Thank you Icoulddoitbetter. That was very interesting.

I think low muscle tone is called hypotonia. Ds doesn't have this, if that makes any difference.

Hi, peanuts33. I would say my ds is catching up. And when it comes down to it, who's to decide what is, eventually, acceptably "caught up"? Just because you started out with a peculiar developmental profile, it doesn't mean that the delayed aspects of your development can't catch up sufficiently that people no longer see you as having a problem, even if you are a little bit awkward, or whatever. So I suspect the school has just identified your ds as needing a little bit of extra support at the moment, but is hoping he will not need long term support. They will then continually review this, to see whether their interventions to help are working or not. If after a while they do not appear to be working satisfactorily, then they might start thinking your ds needs to go back to the paediatrician, or see a psychologist or something, in order to ascertain whether there is an official developmental disorder that is preventing their attempts to help from working effectively, or whether they are just being ineffective in their help!!!!!! In other words, they are just trying to understand and help your child and you should try not to worry about it too much, because neither you nor they know whether it is something to worry about in the long term, yet.

However, you should also go with your instincts. Do you think he does have a diagnosable developmental disorder that should be identified sooner rather than later? Or are you uncertain and willing to wait and see?

As others have said, it depends. On all sorts of factors. Dd was hypotonic and still is hypermobile, but it has not affected her academic performance in any way, quite to the contrary: even her teachers agree that the reason she is so well read is that she has spent so much time off her feet with chronic pain. I haven't seen any signs of emotional/social delay either.

Ds, who is also hypermobile (not sure about the hypotonia), is struggling a bit academically; in his case, I suspect it is not a developmental delay as such, more that his confidence has been badly knocked by his lack of motor skills, so he thinks of himself as "not clever". He seems quite intelligent when you talk to him, but his school work is pretty grim: I think he's got into the habit of "I can't do this, no point in trying". But he is fine socially.

But I could see how hypotonia could affect all sorts of different parts depending on the child and how some of those could affect social/emotional/academic development.

I have sever hypermobility and was quicker in development than most my peers so i don't think there can be that much of a link.

I am hypermobile (walked at 2)but did well academically. My only problem was handwriting stamina and neatness and I still find it painful after long periods. I have poor motor skills and can't do things like carry a pint from bar to table without spilling it.