information on dyspraxia

[secretgardin]

my ds is 9 and has benign hypermobility. the report from the occupational therapist as well as pediatrician noted at the time that he had poor memory, as well as problems with following instructions and appears quite clumsy (ie not being able to tie shoes, no core balance, organisation skills etc). dh and i have become quite concerned as ds isn't capable of caring for himself and needs constant reminding, as well as visual prompts to help him do everyday things. the school reports since reception confirm all this as well. i made an appointment to see the senco and new class teacher, who both said that the issues i raised, were very noticable and that he shows 'mild signs' of dyspraxia. i had already looked at the dyspraxia site before the meeting and the symptoms describe ds almost to a t since he was little. then they told me that the school could not put in a referral, that our GP will be unlikely to refer us and i would have to go privately to get a diagnosis and generally tried to put me off we managed to come to an agreement on how we could help him in and out of school with the easier problems, but i'm absolutely confused. ds is our priority and i want to help him as much as possible, but how and where do we go from here?

I would try and get him referred to a good paed OT, ours has turned DS1's life around in the last 18 months and he is doing so much better in school that I cried at our last parents evening . She assessed him for a good couple of hours and we now know his amazing strengths not only his weaknesses. Having a Dx can help with school attitude etc but the OT helped on a practical level which was brilliant. (ds is 10.5 now btw) (although I'm secretly also quite impressed with the string of letters he came away with, DCD, ASD and ADHD, still my gorgeous lump of a boy for all of that.)

it only took the pediatrician one minute to diagnose my ds and for the first time in years, there was this huge sense of relief, as i always worried that i wasn't doing enough or failing him somehow. amazing the difference a small word can make...it is lovely to hear that you and your ds have had such a positive outcome and that he is doing so well. it must have been such a boost knowing that he can excel in areas instead of just being informed about the negative side. ds laps up praise and we concentrate on the things he does well to help with his confidence, but i only recently found out that ds was being left behind in class a lot in the last year, during assembly etc, to catch up with work. as he is painfully shy, to me that is not acceptable, as it seems like a punishment for something he can't control the fact that his homework is going to become more challenging and time consuming is a big worry now

Well we had the finishing work business too but the OT has given us solutions for that and it has been brilliant. Some very small changes can really help a hypermobile child. Apparently it's all to do with how they are wired and how that affects how the brain gets input about this. We suffer with crippling shyness too, I'm terrified about him going up to 'big school' next year as his current school is small and he is accepted so easily there. Still, we've worked it out for him so far, it will be ok in the end.

Just an aside really but I typed 'he' in relation to your DC automatically without checking to see if I was right, funny how they do turn out to be boys most of the time, do love my random boy!

Hi, I saw your post. How do I get my son referred to a Paed and OT? We have only recently started to think that DS has dysbraxia. I had him tested on Saturday for Dyslexia and they think he might have mild dyslexia, we need to go back in three months. We have been given blue glasses for DS to wear and told to give him Omega 3. They think he has Dysbraxia, but can't diagnose so said I should contact GP to get referral to OT, Paeditrian. Can you advise what process is and whether GP will refer. My son only just learnt to ride a bike this year, he is 8 years and 5 months. Has always been clumsy and his writing is not great. Dyslexia test showed that he has problems with his memory processing and this would make sense, he can't write a story that makes sense and doesn't use punctuation. He loves sport but is not great. He plays sport everyday after school, especially loves football. My son was born with a cleft lip and palate and had speech therapy when he was younger. His speech still doesn't sound as clear as other children although the ENT signed him off last year. Any advice of where to start and what to do to get help for my sonw oudl be much appreciated.

Many thanks