dyspraxia? yr 1

[oliverreed]

hello, can anyone offer any advice/experience.

My ds yr 1 just 6 is really struggling with writing things down. he has lovely handwriting but is very, very slow and occasionally gets letters and numbers back to front. For example, for his homework at the weekend he had to write about a simple picture. He said what he wanted to write but immediately 'lost' the words when it came to writing out. It's as if the wireless connection to his hands from his brain isn't working!

In the past he missed lots of play time to catch up on work at school until I asked if we could take it home instead. He is an above average reader (stage 10 ORT) and is above average for mental maths. he has recently had a comprehensive visual assessment and everything is okay wrt that.

We have also been trying to teach him to ride a bike for two weeks solid now and he just can't get the hang of it. I feel like these issues are connected - could he be dyspraxic? He is quite good at sports but doesn't enjoy them.

He is at an academic 'prep' so i think there is an expectation to 'keep up'.
He was diagnosed with hypermobile joints when he was younger but was discharged from the OT service after he was given orthotics aged 3.

Any clues as to what I should be doing (or maybe not doing?) next.

I would ask for a re referral to the OT

Dyspraxia Foundation Symptom Checker - but bear in mind no one will have all of those symptoms. If your DS has several, or you recognise enough to worry you, though, ask your GP for a referral - usually back to OT in the first instance.

Some of what you say does sound Dyspraxic (although lots of children would take longer than 2 weeks to learn how to ride a bike), but other bits don't really match - the lovely handwriting, the being good at sports, for example. But it's such a mixed bag - there's no black and white list. It's certainly worth exploring. Does the school have a SENCo?

... and many dyspraxic children learn to ride a bike without any problems
your LEA may have a DCD team who could offer the school ideas

My 11 year old DD has dyspraxia, dyslexia and dyscalculia.

I also suspect it in my youngest daughter (4) which is why I clicked on your thread. The best piece of advice I can give you is to get it checked out by a dyslexia specialist. The schools and SENCO are not equipped to make a formal diagnosis (as I found). The most they will say is that they "suspect it".

The formal diagnosis will help your son a lot - if he does have it. The lady I saw with my eldest (and who is also going to "assess" my 4 year old - I use inverted commas as 4 is too young for a formal assessment), wrote a 20 page document with not only the diagnosis but also recommendations which became part of the IEP. I had to pay for this but it was the best money I ever spent. Also (and this is very important for my DD), having the formal diagnosis helps with SATs and GCSEs as they can apply to have additional time to complete the exams - 25%. This will really help my daughter as she has never yet got to the end of the test paper.

WRT symptoms - my eldest I think is more severely affected and has shown the following:

• needed speach therapy due to "mis - pronunciation" - especially "v" and "th"
• could not sit properly at "mat time"
• forgot oral instructions
• mirror writing
• couldn't associate numbers with objects (although could count from 1-10 so that was a surprise)
• clumsy
• took ages to learn left from right
• messy eating - always getting food in her hair (which is long)
• can't retain spellings - she can learn them for a spellimg test and then promptly forgets them.
• HATES reading for pleasure - the only way I have ever been able to get her to read a book without having a major meltdown has been for me to ask her to read to her younger sister. She adores her so she's done it for her rather than to gain pleasure out of it for herself.

The major warning sign for my daughter (and the thing that the youngest is now displaying) was a HUGE issue with clothes. She will still only wear "comfortable" clothes such as leggings and t-shirts. Socks must have minimal seams. Shirts must be tailored so they don't need to be tucked in. Jeans are a definite "no no". She will not wear anything with sleeves.

I have been speaking to the dyslexia expert I know today (she has a doctorate in this) and she said that the hypersensitivity was a common trait with dyslexia/dyspraxia (they are all linked apparantly).

Having said all this though - they are all different. Both my daughters are really good on a bike. My son on the other hand is rubbish and he has no learning difficulties that we know of.

Also, knowing what I know now dyslexia isn't a disability. I'm lot an expert but my crude understanding is this: It's just that their brain processes things differently. I can't remember which way round it is but say, normally the eye sends the signal to the right hand side of the brain and then processes it there, in a dyslexic person it sends it to the left hand side. The left hand side sends it to the right for processing - hence the delay. In a child there aren't enough paths between left and right, but over time these develop (and there are exercises to develop this more quickly). Ultimately a dyslexic ends up with lots of paths going between the left and right side of the brain so they end up using their whole brain for everything basically. Which is actually a good thing as lots of dyslexics end up being able to think laterally a lot more easily. There are a lot of famous dyslexics including richard Branson and Winston Churchill (more but i forgety who). The best book I read on this subject was "The gift of dyslexia".

Sorry, I know I've gone on a lot about dyslexia, but everything I've learnt is that all 3 are linked. Dyslexia seems to be the common denominator with various degrees of the other 2.

Also, in my experience, the school did nowhere near enough. If you can afford it, I would pay for private tuition. Although, maybe your school will be different.

hello all, many thanks for the information you have all posted. i am going to start by getting ds hearing tested and also request a meeting with his class teacher. I was thinking of re-referring him to the OT's but perhaps an Ed Psych/Dyslexia specialist assessment might be best (are these v expensive?)

I wouldn't waste my money on an EP or dyslexia assessment at this stage. See what the school can suggest. A diagnosis is pretty meaningless it doesn't tell you how to help solve the problems it just tells you there is a problem (which you already know) Finding the cause and how to correct/best support is more worthwhile.

Dyslexia is just a meaningless umbrella term for a number of difficulties which cause difficulties when learning to read and write.

The lady I saw is an OT and a dyslexia specialist as well. The diagnosis isn't meaningless at all - I got a 20 page document detailing suggested interventions for the school and myself to make with my daughter.

The school were really grateful for it as they just don't have the same expertise in house. I think I paid about £60 for it and it really was money well spent.

Before doing this though I did take her for a hearing and sight test.

You got a 20 page document that the school can ignore if they wish

they may not have the expertise in house but they should certainly be able to access it free of charge if they have concerns.

as a SENCO I regularly refer children to OT services (my county doesn't recognise a diagnosis of "dyslexia")

I took my dd1 at the end of yr 1 to a child physiotherapist, because I was concerned about her fine motor skills, handwriting, inability to eat with a knife and fork, posture.

Without boring you with the whole diagnosis, the verdict was she had issues that fall in the dyspraxic spectrum (you don't get a straightforward she/he is dyspraxic verdict). I used the report to wave at her teacher and the head of SEN at the beginning of yr 2, who drew up an action plan for her. I've also been paying for a private ot to see her, initially once a week, now once a fortnight and the difference she has made has been astonishing.

The school had referred dd1 to an OT at the end of reception and she had five sessions with a very nice lady and was then discharged with a sheet of paper about some exercises she could do at home. It wasn't enough because she didn't fall into a serious category - if that's the case with your ds you can expect little help from the nhs.

I'd also say an academic prep may not be the most sympathetic environment for a child like this. I was considering transferring dd1 to a nearby academic prep (she is doing very well at school, now her various difficulties are being worked on) but after a phone conversation it became clear they wouldn't tolerate any child with any difference and would have no idea how to cater for her needs. Your ds's school may be different, but ime many of these schools can pick any child they like and some won't bother with the ones who are different in any way.

ds is 10 and dyspraxic with other mild specific learning difficulties but high cognitive ability. Is just about getting the hang of riding a bike.

He was fine in Y1 but it all went v wrong in Y2 when they started doing cursive writing and harder times tables. Self esteem went through the floor.

We got an ed psych diagnosis which was the best thing we ever did- at least now we know what we are dealing with and can take steps to help. We saw an OT as well; but for us that was a complete waste of time and money

Oh, and he was at a v academic prep in London which did not handle any of this very well. We removed him to a school which, whilst still academic, has a broader intake and a broader approach, together with really good learning support

Vix - did they tell you that 'specific learning difficulties' is another term for dyslexia?

Is it normal for a child with dyspraxia to have lovely handwriting - albeit slow? I wouldn't read to much into the bike riding. DS took a while to get the hang of it - I think it was more a confidence issue.

mrz - I can only comment on my own experience but our schools senco did not refer to OT.

To give you an idea of how behind my daughter was her teacher said that there were a few children "at the bottom end of the class" and then a big gap, and then my daughter. There were several children at the early stages of learning english and they could all read better than my daughter.

Our school (ofstead "outstanding" by the way) don't seem to have the resource to get outside help. They used to have dyslexia specialists coming into the school but they stopped doing that a few years ago. My daughter had private tuition once a week for help with spellings, reading and writing, and then once a week for maths. We paid for these sessions and it worked. She is now "average" in her year group and I'm really proud of her.

The only thing the school have done with her is a session of "wordshark" once a week for the past 4 years. This, I feel is pretty pointless, as we've had this computer game at home for the last 5 years.

My dyspraxic son was riding a two wheeler bike without stabilizers before he started school (I've never mastered the skill) but he didn't write until Y6 (and then not very well) my handwriting was/is often complimented. The point is every child with the diagnosis of dyspraxia (DCD, dyslexia, ADHD, ASD ...) is different and faces different obstacles in learning and life. We have a child with a diagnosis who is on the under nine books of a professional football club.

Sorry to digress, but I now have a lovely image of mrz cycling to work on a full-sized ladies bike complete with stabilizers.

Unfortunately my coordination doesn't stretch to peddling just as well I live and work in a rural area where cycling to work wouldn't ever be an option

northcountrygirl is it a state school?

oliverreed since your DS is already known to OT I would go back there first. Dyspraxia is characterised by higher verbal skills than performance skills with a normal IQ as assessed by a Psychologist.
Best practice to make a diagnosis is a medical opinion (to exclude any more sinister movement disorders), an OT assessment of movement skills, visual perception and sensory processing and a Psychologist IQ assessment.
Dyspraxia is highly co-morbid with dyslexia (since dyslexia can be described as a visual-motor difficulty).
A good OT will devise strategies for home and school. They should also be working on specific motor programmes combined with Sensory Integrative techniques.
Good handwriting (usually under certain conditions) doesn't exclude Dyspraxia but can often disappear with greater volumes of work/under exam stress.

Good resources for you are any of the Madelaine Portwood books- she is a Psychologist who has done extensive work in this area and is closely involved with the www.dyspraxiafoundation.org.uk/

Yes it's state.

I'm honestly not having a go at them (although I know it reads like that). They have 120 children in each year and I think they just don't have the resourse to give much extra help to my daughter. My youngest (aged 4) is showing possible signs too. If she does have learning difficulties then we'll just get on with it as we did with my eldest.

Then they should be able to access a range of specialist support through the LEA

Yes I know they should. I've always been under the impression that because we were paying for it they were happy to let us.

Maybe they would have done something eventually if we hadn't, but I couldn't just stand back and watch my daughter get further and further behind. And with the best will in the world, they wouldn't have been able to do as good a job as her private tutor did. The lady we saw has a doctorate in education - she's written loads of books and papers and even written her own education software so that parents can teach the sessions from home. Everyone knows this lady and she's very well respected.

The IEPs have annoyed me though. The way they read it sounds as though the school are doing the things that their tutor is doing. And then the school "congratulates" itself for how effective it's been.

The school is now an academy, so maybe things will get better. Or maybe they won't...

Fortunately the children in my area can freely access the services of Dr Madeleine Portwood who is considered to be the leading authority on the subject

Maybe I should have moved to your area.

It is what it is though. Not all schools are good with SN and all I can do as a parent is get her the help she needs. I've had to pay for this help, but it wasn't a huge amount, and she's doing well now. She was so miserable a few years ago with massive confidence problems due to being so far behind her peers. Fortunately, we could afford the extra tuition. If we hadn't, I fear the gap would just have got wider and wider.

I can also refer my pupils to a specialist private OT service for treatment at no cost to the parents we aren't considered outstanding by OFSTED but we don't fail our SEN pupils