Have an appointmrnt with GP tomorrow - report from school and aim to get DD age 8 assessed - Dyspraxia

[bigmouthstrikesagain]

DD is in yr 4 and due to start middle school in sept where she will be attending subject lessons - need to follow a timetable and find her way around her new school independently. Basically expectations are about to go way up.

I have always known dd is different - she was irritable and had poor sleeping patterns from birth but I just breast fed and co-slept my way through the first couple of years... then she had severe toddler constipation and so another few years of poor sleep patterns and medications til that settled down. Then from pre-school on despite her sunny nature, natural empathy and friendliness she is socially awkward - adults often adore her but she finds peer group friendships difficult to maintain as they are all on her terms. She will play with others but cannot compromise and is easily put off - prone to being emotional.

She has poor balance and cannot stand on one leg for more than a couple of seconds, she cannot tie shoelaces or ride a bike. She is great on her scooter though. She is often completely unattentive near roads and I wonder if she will ever cross a road safely on her own! She has poor handwriting and presentation skills though she comes up with wonderful story ideas and is comfortable typing. Her reading is very good and recall for stories, comprehension and maths at least average. But poor attention span and lack of concentration means she rarely completes class work now and that is only going to get harder for her.

I have read the class teacher's report for the GP and it is so hard to accept that dd has all these difficulties - but I am going to have to lay it all on the line to get the help she needs.

So you lovely experienced people - any tips, experience - it does sound like dyspraxia doesn't it? I have a feeling this is going to be a long drawn out process - what sort of wait times are there for diagnoses?

Yes, a lot of it does sound like Dyspraxia - and it's certainly worth pushing for that diagnosis, because with it will hopefully come things like using a laptop for her Yr6 SATs (and subsequent public exams) and written work in school.

In my DSs' cases, the GP referred to Occupational Therapy and Educational Psychology - their reports were then the basis on which a paediatrician made the formal diagnosis. It took a good few months.

Wishing you all the best for your appointment tomorrow. I'm also taking my ds (5) to the GP tomorrow as both school and I think he may be dyspraxic. I've typed out my concerns to give to the GP, and some of the issues you listed in your post mirror my son's problems.

Thank you home appliance and Hassled and good luck with your appointment home appliance.

I am veering between being very sad that dd is going to have to deal with all this and very glad that there is help and recognition available now. I just hope the GP is helpful and refers and doesn't try to minimise or fob us off. Fingers crossed and a large glass of wine right now, I think.

I'd hoped that ds's 'difficulties' we're down to him being young in the year and that he'd catch up Looking on the positive, at least a diagnosis when they're young will hopefully mean they will get support. It's sad to read about people with dyspraxia getting a diagnosis as an adult and missing out on all that help and understanding when they were at school.

I don't know how knowledgable GP's generally are about dyspraxia, but I feel confident having my concerns typed out (with the school's backing) to give them tomorrow. At least I won't get all flustered trying to explain everything!

My ds2 was seen within the week, with no diagnosis, so not dyspraxia without any reference from school.
However, he wasn't seen by anybody else and finally had a diagnosis of Aspergers when he was 17.

bigmouth good luck with your GP appointment. You certainly have enough concerns to warrant a proper assessment for your DD. It would be unfair to escalate the academic/school demands on her without attempting to understand what might be causing difficulties for her.

As you say it can be a long, drawn out process- but it worthpursuing and interventions do help.
Here has lots of free, downloadable resources for parents.

Looking at her core strength would also give you ideas of where to start working with her....we can all do with working on core muscles, but it tends to be a particular problem for children who have co-ordination/organisation/sensory processing problems.