Dyspraxia advice

[Bluedragon86]

My DD is almost 4 and has been referred for a dyspraxia assessment. The nursery have a number of concerns all of which I agree with. Does this sound likely to be Dyspraxia or should we be looking at ASD. Feeling a little lost as its a long wait to get an assessment.

• speech is really behind, struggles with sentences and is very hard to understand
• poor balance and very clumsy, often falls over for no reason.
• can't ride a bike
• poor concentration
• can't go down stairs unless helped
• needs help at playgrounds
• very sociable and loves her friends
• no issues with eye contact
• very late to walk and crawl

How did your dyspraxic children cope at school. Looking for advice on how I can help her.

It sounds like a referral for an assessment (developmental co-ordination disorder (DCD) is more commonly used now rather than dyspraxia) is the right thing. If they suspect autism is at play too/instead, they will refer for that.

Has DD also been referred to SALT?

Some ideas that may help include things like play-doh, kneading dough, decorating biscuits, painting the fence with water, mark making in sand, swimming, the swing, rolling on the grass.

You might find some of the ideas on this OT website helpful.

Schools can provide support with things like writing, seating if necessary, getting dressed, many run interventions groups such as Jump Ahead or Fizzy. Is the nursery providing support now?

Thank you for the advice and link perpetualplatespinning.
We have a private SALT as the NHS therapist wouldn't private regular support. Nursery have been brilliant and provide lots of help.

Do you think what I described could be DCD?

I'd say what you describe could be more DCD than ASD for sure (I'm an adult with DCD/dyspraxia, with an autistic 4 year old son).
Baring in mind, I was diagnosed with dyspraxia in 2005 when the support was very minimal (not particularly big changes with the NHS support in 20 years sadly but schools are much more well informed), but apart from minimal extra time for writing tasks, I left school with 13 gcses and scraped by with 3 a levels with very little help (no OT or anything of the sort).

It's very much a spectrum condition so every experience will be different, I later discovered i also have dyslexia but i was a typically "academic" child and have 2 degrees now that I was given support for (I have a much younger dyspraxic sibling and we are almost chalk and cheese in how it impacts us both).

I do think it could well be DCD. Although a lot of difficulties can overlap with other things.

Has the nursery requested an EHCNA? If not, you can do that yourself. On their website, IPSEA has a model letter you can use. Don’t let anyone put you off making the request.

Is DD starting school this September or next? If this September, get in contact with the school’s SENCO.

My ds has a diagnosis of DCD. The issues for him at school were PE (once he got older he needed to be taken off PE and games, he'd been killed on the rugby field), getting around school (up and down stairs in the midst of the scrum when bell goes) and the biggest issue, writing. He was advised to type by his NHS OT, but logging around a heavy and expensive laptop across school at primary age wasn't easy either, especially together with ADHD. He's homeschooled now. Out of his ASD, ADHD and DCD, DCD was the thing that made school most difficult, including leading to loneliness and bullying (unfortunately, friendships seem still to he formed around playing football and tag). What helped the most was learning to touch type from a very early age (Nesdy Fingers etc). We did finger/play dough gym and several courses of 1:1 NHS physio sessions that he really enjoyed, but nothing really made a difference. Also hours and hours of handwriting practice didn't improve things. So if you think your child has reached their developmental limit, get an OT assessment and establish typing or even a scribe as their 'normal way of working', so that they can do it for GCSEs etc.

My 9 year old just received her diagnosis. We raised it at 4 and were fobbed off . All of the things you have said about your dd describes ours but of course that isn't a diagnosis.

What would I say in terms of advice? If she is due to start school next August or September then make an appointment to speak to them once the assessment has been done. You would need to make them aware that it is a neurological condition too so often kids need extra time to complete tasks, they can be more mindful if she struggles or gets upset or needs more help with certain tasks.

If you are able to take her swimming do so. Our dd pulled herself out of the pool this week and that's the first time she has ever been able to do it. Just this week she managed to button up her own pyjama top. Shes on the 0.1 percentile for movement.

Go to softplay too where she gets chance to pull herself up and balance, hopefully it will be fun for her too but it helps exercise lots of muscle groups. Take her to the park, encourage her to play, run and jump. Play with play doh or putty to strengthen her hands. Play with sand to make shapes. If you google scissors for children with dcd buy a pair and have her just practice cutting. If she enjoys water play then transferring water from different sized containers can help with coordination. All of these things can help strengthen her hands for learning to write. Talk to occupational health about pencil grips and whether they would be useful or recommended so she develops a good pencil grip.

I'd also consider something like yoga for kids, we do cosmic kids yoga, it's on YouTube and based around kids tv show characters or films.

I'd also say you are her best advocate so follow your gut.

We were told they can't give a full DCD diagnosis with recommendations for school accommodations at 4, but they invited us back for regular reviews. The reason I was told is that they need time to rule out other possibilities, like delayed global development, and they want to see how handwriting practice and other interventions work. My ds was 8 when he got his definite DCD diagnosis with recommendations for school accommodations to eliminate need for handwriting (our assessment compared sample handwritings taken by the OT over 3 years and they showed no change despite regular practice, so there was evidence it was physical/neurological rather than lack of practice). They also had time to look at EP assessment etc to rule out global development delay. They did at earlier stages still write reports to us and to the school that detailed what help and intervention he needed. But it were pages over pages of daily excercises, we never found the time to do them all, so we focused on touch typing, play dough, walking and swimming. The problem we found is that it's a downwards spiral - if kids have dcd, they find sport and physical activity difficult and even painful, when they play with other children, or join a club, they get bullied or at least made fun of for being bad at it, or told off by a coach, so they quickly really want to avoid all physical activity and become even worse.

Thank you for the advice that's really helpful @NellyBarney @Pickled21