What could it be if DD1 is showing some symptoms of Dyspraxia but not the physical symptoms IYSWIM

[DevilwearsPrada]

Not sure if this is in the right place. As the title says, dd1(5) has been referred by school to an educational psychologist and a paeditrician and a speech expert. So is slow to pick up reading, writing etc. She's coming to the end of reception now. She's always reached her milestones behind what other children do. Her speech is not really up to what a 5 year olds should be (IMO) she can't draw anything apart from squiggles not even stick people.

She's a happy child most of the time and has settled into school well. She tends to stick with the boys rather than play with the girls and has one best (boy) friend. But she doesn't necissarily (sp)understand things which she probably should at her age. She is showing some of the symptoms of dyspraxia -

May be easily distressed and prone to temper tantrums

Persistent language difficulties

Sensitive to sensory stimulation, including high levels of noise, tactile defensiveness, wearing new clothes

Limited response to verbal instruction. May be slow to respond and have problems with comprehension

(Have copied and pasted from dyspraxia website), these are the main symptoms she's showing, also obsessive over certain things done in order, hates routine being broken, constant broken sleep, etc. But she's showing no signs of the physical symptoms (thank god) so I'm confused. She's a very athletic, sports orientated girl, loves anything outdoorsy is excellent with a football. (Proud). On the other hand she can be so sensitive and gets really emotional over random things, she'll have days were she is totally not in the mood for certain people, (i.e me , her nan, her sisters, people in school) never her dad though she adores her dad.

I'm at a bit of a loss TBH, I don't want there to be anything "wrong" with her but I know something isn't quite "right" IYSWIM? Any advice would be much appreciated.

Laughing at your post re ornaments Expat. Being with my kid in a shop full of china nick-nacks is the most stressful thing I can think of!

bored 'witless' not 'witness'. Gah.

Arggh - just wrote a post and it has disappeared this time!

I was going to say DS understands facial expression too, knows when I am teasing, that when I raise an eyebrow I am cross, can put himself in other people's shoes (he feels empathy for his brother when I am cross with DS2 over something - tries to protect DS2 and make allowances for him). I think he probably understand bored too observing it between other people! I think the problem is that once they get on their favourite specialist subject of the moment they are so wrapped up in their own world that they don't even notice what your expression is, rather than not understanding it. Their obsession takes over.

It is difficult to know what normal is too. I think that something DS does is AS related and then somebody I know with a NT child or something I read about NT chidlren, and they are exactly the same. I suppose it is a question of degree.

Yes, my ds can do all that too. The obsessive nature of their interests is the equivalent of lining things up in other children. My ds will witter on about his pet subjects while looking at the floor half the time, but even if he's looking he will ignore attempts to interrupt, change the subject, beg for mercy etc
That's his Aspergers talking.

Yes I understand that but they all do it to an extent, particularly boys! I think it is a very sensitive boy that doesn't ever bore anybody because he hasn't noticed their audience aren't interested.

Goodness, even DH does it sometimes, explaining some riveting work related fact or something to do with his car, bless him.

I was going to say you had me convinced but then I looked at the Dyspraxia Foundation website again here and that describes DS to a tee except for this boring the pants off people thing which other boys do to.

I don't know - his teacher doesn't understand him at all and he has had a bad year at school as a result but now I am wondering if I should be so hard on her when I don't have clue either!

My dd has AS and has a fantastic imagination and is very creative. Her artwork is amazing. All chldren are different including those with asd's!!!

ds2 and ds3 handflap at times. DS2 is completely NT, ds3 is NT but with some sensory problem imo- both probably copying ds1.

We went to my parents house today. DS1 wanted to see over their approx 10 ft wall. He tried standing on me, standing on dh, standing on the picnic table, standing on the back of the chair to crawl up, climbing on the playhouse (we stopped him) roof to look over, he tried to fetch a ladder from the garage so we locked the garage so he then came up with a trick to get us to open the garage to try and nab a ladder, he tried to look over the wall from upstairs inside the house (through a first floor window), he tried to stand on the dining room table. Certainly a lot of creative problem solving (stuff I wouldn't have thought of) and he's severely autistic supposedly with learning difficulties (I think the difficulties come more from being unteachable than IQ tbh). The autism of course being the absolute need to see over the 10 foot wall and the drive/obsession that kept him trying different options for about an hour.

like I said, i worked with two university students who had Asperger's.

to watch them perform music or to read their writing, you would not know they were autistic - lots of demonstrated ability to articulate abstract concepts, problem solve, be creative, etc.

like I said, i worked with two university students who had Asperger's.

to watch them perform music or to read their writing, you would not know they were autistic - lots of demonstrated ability to articulate abstract concepts, problem solve, be creative, etc.

like I said, i worked with two university students who had Asperger's.

to watch them perform music or to read their writing, you would not know they were autistic - lots of demonstrated ability to articulate abstract concepts, problem solve, be creative, etc.

sorry, am watching Ray Mears, too.

damn, he's sexy.

I think it's tempting (and I've been tempted) to think, 'it's ONLY dyspraxia' because it sounds so much more socially acceptable and trivial than an ASD, especially as autism has such negative connotations of being hard and robotic and emotionless. I do think they often go together have a lot in common though. I think there is a kind of rigidity and relentlessness that I would associate with Aspergers, but which of course can also be a very useful quality, as in determination and focus.

is it ever 'only dyspraxia', though?

i mean, it's becoming pretty obvious that DD1 is going to have trouble with maths (she has spacial concept issues), reading, etc.

i guess people think of dyspraxia as just tripping and dropping stuff, though, the same as they think autism is just this horrible lifelong sentence of being a robot.

Absolutely, I agree. Dyspraxia is a proper handicap in life and I often think it is more of a problem for ds than his very high functioning and academically able version of Aspergers. But it is socially more acceptable, because it doesn't have the same associations with being emotionless and robotic. The fact that he struggles to dress himself, write, organise himself to do the simplest task is a huge difficulty.

exactly, MsD. DH is dyspraxic as well and people don't realise how much it affects your life and family - particularly when you have two people with it.

people just think it has to do with a few gross motor skills, without realising how many things, like speech, like being able to sequence, your brain telling you that you need to go to the toilet and the like, are motor skills, too.

DH said he was 9 years old before he could ride a bike.

Poor DWP! I see this thread has gone mad and lots of people have turned up to contradict each other as usual.
As some sensible ones have said, talk to her teachers, talk to the senco - if you haven't already done both of these... more likely that you have. Presumably she also has an IEP? one 'label' (should you want to have one) does not fit all, having worked with around eighty-something folk with "spectrum" disorders [and some who had somehow got the label who definitely were not] then this much is obvious.

It really is unwise to post anything on sen here as you lot all want to contradict each other, with malices.
I'm off!

What a ridiculous and aggressive post You are clearly not half as well informed about ASD as you think, and cannot bear to be told so.

I am so glad you aren't teaching my son.

What a ridiculous and aggressive post

pot, kettle?

how sad that you feel that way about people with autism, giggle.

i'm glad no one's written off my daughter just yet, even though she hasn't got autism, she does have a number of impairments.

Goodness gigglewitch I thought we were all have a discussion, not contradicting one another! I don't see anybody be malicious either!

Just because the rest of us don't agree with you (or with each other sometimes come to that) doesn't mean to say we are getting at anybody. The problem with all the conditions we are talking about is that they are not cut and dried, they are not easy to diagnose - you said so yourself, so it is only natural that we are talking around the subject.

Unfortunately you were mistaken in the believing AS children can't be affectionate or have an imagination. Those of us with children on the spectrum get daily reminders of how affectionate our children are and listening to DS imagine the horrible consequences of things he is frightened of I know he has an imagination too. If that is the only thing that is leading DWP to believe her daughter doesn't have AS and that instead she has a physical disorder despite being physically able then surely she needs to know this?

No point talking to the teachers - DWP has done that hence the referral to the paed and the ed psych. Personally I don't think she even needs the ed psych, just the paed but better to take all you are offered I suppose.

Well my son has severe autism (absolutely no mistake there- about as sound a diagnosis as you can get) and is affectionate, problem solving - quite possibly imaginative although hard to know without language. Certainly the non-verbal adults who have learned to type don't seem to suffer lack of imagination.

I don't see any disagreements on this thread - more a reflection of the diversity of the spectrum'- except with the statement 'but can't be on the autistic spectrum as he can visualise and describe abstract situations and is very creative and a good problem solver. Children with ASD have none of these skills.'

Find it rather scary a teacher of children with ASD thinks that really. How can you possibly educate them if you've written them off before they even get into your classroom?

I don't see disagreements; people with more experience of ASD focus on the ASD symptoms, people with more experience of dyspraxia focus on the dyspraxia side, as is natural. And most posters recognise the overlap. I can only suggest that you google for Temple Grandin and Donna Williams if you really believe people with ASD can't solve problems creatively.

To the OP - I agree with the others about looking for a proper referral - seems like that is in train. Probably worth you phoning up to find out exactly how long the appointments will take - if it's going to be several months, you may (if you have spare cash) want to look at buying in speech therapy privately. Talk to the teacher or senco about strategies for helping pupils with language problems/understandably - visual cues/visual timetables may help her.

Thanks for all your replies, appreciate you all putting down your own experiences. I had a look at the AS website and it doesn't really sound like my dd TBH. But will wait and see what the paed says. My appointment is 4th August. Can't afford to go private so will just have to wait. I'm concerned about her progress in school, but it is a good school and they are red hot on SEN and quite good with the extra help.

Just a little sad as we all want our children to be "normal" don't we. Thanks again for all your replies.

And who are you fiddlededee? Another name for Gigglewitch, who accuses the parents of children with special needs of posting 'with malices' (sic) simply because they don't like the way she writes off autistic children? As I said, so glad my ds isn't one of the poor kids in her classroom, as she thinks so little of our children's abilities.

DWP, I hope you get some answers at your appointment. My experience is, whatever their problems, our children do have many abilities, will develop and grow and will often surprise us.