Spatial awareness

[Donethat16]

Hi would really appreciate your opinions on this. My son is 4.5 and is always jumping and running instead of calmly walking. A concern that was raised by his teacher is that he has poor spatial awareness as he tends to bump into other boys resulting in him falling and hurting himself. I do not know what to make of this or indeed what it means. This was only mentioned when I queried why he so often had bruises/grazes on his knees.

I have not observed any other signs of his supposed poor spatial awareness.

It is often a red flag for dyspraxia. They lack the awareness of where their body parts are that other children have. Even if it isn't I'd recommend trying trampolining. We go at our local sports centre and it's fabulous for children who are naturally jumping and running everywhere.

At age 4.5, isn't it just a fancy term for, "he is not paying attention to his surroundings"? My ds was like that when he was younger, once he came home with huge bump on his head, said walked straight into the wall. And he was always covered with bruises on his knees.

How is he with things like hopping, ball catching, shoe lace tying and telling the time on clocks with hands?

A few members of our family have varying levels of dyspraxia.

I've always been labelled as awkward or clumsy and even now in my 50s, have a couple of bruises from bumping in to inanimate objects. Husband often gets one of my misplaced elbows in his eye.

Does he have any issues with gross or fine motor skills? Riding a bike, kicking a ball, climbing, jumping, holding a pencil, threading beads, puzzles etc ? Sensory issues like walking barefoot or messy play?

Thanks Nynaeves. I've read that as well but apart from the running about and bumping into others, there is none of the other "symptoms". I will look into trampoline.

He can ride a bike well, writes really well for his age, not great at using knife and fork and instead prefers to eat with his fingers, can hop well enough. Can do his own zipper but not laces. None of his shoes have laces. Does well at puzzles. He hasn't done any threading of beads. Maybe I should test him on that. He walks barefoot indoors all the time and likes taking off his shoes to run in the sandboxes.

I honestly do not know what to do next. My gut feeling is that he simply not paying attention to his surroundings rather than something more fundamental.

If you are concerned, speak to the teacher and find out what she means, either your ds being a typical 4 years old, or there are some concerns.

At a very recent parents and teachers meeting (1.5wks ago), his teacher said there are no concerns about anything. I imagine if there was an issue it would have been raised then? I've asked for further explanation but I did think it was a rather stark thing to say given that there are no other signs that I am aware of other than he likes running and jumping about and often ends up with bruised knees that are the result of collison with other kids.

However, her comment has unsettled me greatly.

By the way thanks to all for your responses. Much appreciated.

I would try not to worry unduly, he does sound like a typical energetic 4.5 year old to me. just keep a wether eye on his physical skills development as he gets older.

I suspect all those bumps and scrapes will help him gain better spatial awareness soon enough.

I agree that if he hasn't got any other issues (there is quite a good check list on one of the dyspraxia) then it is probably nothing to worry about.

I have been in a similar position, DS (now 11) had issues with spatial awareness, was clumsy (HT said he could fall over fresh air), often have to go into school because he has bumped his head falling over / sprained ankle / wrist. The HT first mentioned dyspraxia where he had fallen and banged his head (needing to go to A&E to be checked out) on 2 consecutive days.

Long story short but school nurse telephoned me, we went through various things but the key point for me was what would happen if he were dyspraxic. She said he would be referred to an occupational therapist who would help him with his fine motor skills etc (shoelace tying etc) - but he didn't have an issue with that. For me, and this is only a personal observation, even if my DS had been mildly dypraxic (it is literally only his spatial awareness / clumsiness that was / is of concern), there is nothing to be gained from a diagnosis. Everybody agree to "monitor" the situation, but nothing ever came of it.