Can Dyspraxia be mild or severe.

[paul2louise]

My son age 12 has just been diagnosed with Dyspraxia. His English teacher suspected he may have it and suggested I got him checked out. He can do most things but it takes him longer sometimes. He is forgetful and isn't flexible and struggles with sport. I am waiting for a referral to Occ health. Until then he gets a laptop at school. I don't want to do everything for him as I want him to become more independent. I want him to be active and not spend too long on screen time. He says he can't be bothered to do things sometimes.i posted on a Facebook group and a few people told me off for pushing him too hard and said he is struggling and he needs to rest. But I don't want a teenager getting into bad habits. It's getting a balance. I don't think he has it severely otherwise I would have flagged it up myself

DCD can present differently in different people. What other support is the school providing? Do you mean occupational therapy rather than occupational health? Parents don’t always notice the difficulties so I wouldn’t use that as an indicator, although it sounds like you did notice some struggles.

School provide my son with a laptop to use. The pediatrician told me she was going to refer him to Occupational Health at the appointment we had last week. I did notice some struggles but I didn't have any way of knowing why and blamed myself for a lot of things he chooses not to do or has difficulty with as I do most things for him because it's easier. He quite often says it's because I am lazy. I said this in a another group and was accused of lowering his self esteem. He is a perfectly happy boy confidence and extremely laid back and jokes about his forgetting things or finding some things difficult. I had just come to accept it . I want to be able to positively encourage him without fussing him too much or expecting too much

Other than the laptop, what support is the school providing?

The paediatrician will mean occupational therapy rather than occupational health.

Probably so. Not seen any correspondence yet following the appointment. School are not doing anything else except providing a laptop. What other support can they give. Until I have anything in writing from this appointment with suggestions or recommendations I can't give school any more information at the moment

Support in school is based on needs, not diagnosis. You say DS is forgetful, the school could provide further help with organisation e.g. a mentor. They could look at assistive technology to go with the laptop to help DS with organisation and planning. They could make reasonable adjustments for practical subjects e.g. if in cookery they normal chop/grate etc. ingredients in class they could allow DS to do that at home to give him more time or allow him to bring in pre-chopped ingredients/ingredients chopped by you if he can’t. Or if there is more than one group doing PE at the same time DS could stay with the activity/sport that meets his needs better.