Can you tell me about Dyspraxia please?

[shimmerysilverglitter]

Ds is HFA, diagnosed and statemented and while I know he has it there just seems to be something more going on with him iyswim?

I have done some research and he does tick many boxes, however he walked early, completely bypassed crawling but tbh that is the only discrepancy. Everything else fits even disbelieving ex h was shocked by how much it fits ds.

Please can you tell me what you know and your experiences, am going to GP tomorrow to talk about it and ask for a referral (to who?)

Many thanks.

I don't know masses about dyspraxia but have done some reading lately, it seems that there is quite a crossover in symptoms between AS/HFA and dyspraxia. So the things you are seeing could be his HFA IYSWIM.
Or he could have both and you are seeing a mixture of the 2.

Have you googled??

You will need a referall to an OT I think so that his coordination/motor skills can be tested.

Good luck with the GP.

my ds has AS and dyspraxia. ask gp for referral to OT and paed. both conditions often present but do need separate treatment and listed on statement separately in order to access OT and SP&LT

sorry,should have said can access above via nhs but if you feel they need to also be provided at school then should be on statement

Thank you, have been doing some reading and seems unlikely we will get a diagnosis if already diagnosed asd. He has OT support already on his statement but not enough imvho. maybe still ask for referral anyway, just feel there is more going on with him.

:) Hiya my 19 yo daughter has dyspraxia and dyslexia. She has always been the child who was bound to fall in the puddle, down the hole or bump into the wall. She cannot go through a door without bumping into the door frame. She has to look where she puts her feet going up and down the stairs or she will fall down them. She has lots of problems with depth perception. She finds it very difficult to organise anything, she has to rely on colour co-ordinating things, highlighting things for her revision work, using coloured post it notes etc. to rememer anything. She is very untidy and cannot cope with cleaning as she goes etc when she is cooking. She is 19 now and some of the things she struggles with are because of the dyslexia. It's difficult for me to remember lots of her ways from being a young child but I do remember her accidents, she was almost drawn to the dangerous thing. Hope this helps a little.

we got a diagnosis of dyspraxia after the asd one. we have found the dypraxia side of things has got harder for ds as he has got older. he doesnt get enough OT either, we have had to pay privately for some as he was getting so anxious during teen years. with hindsight should have got referrals earlier
hotpot-your daughter sounds exactly like my 18yr old son!

My DS has dyspraxia and it was always queried if he had Aspergers. As he has got older, i feel that the crossovers when he was young would have made it quite difficult to be accurate, but as he has got older i can see that he would probably never have got the AS diagnosis as the traits that crossover could also be the dyspraxic ones. He doesn't have enough pure traits for both diagnosis.
I am lucky though as his school works hard to support him. That in part is because of his Jekyll and Hyde nature - angel at school, devil at home.

My daughter has not been formally diagnosed but is definitely very dyspraxic. Basically she has a very short-term memory, sensory issues, poor motor planning and co-ordination, poor concentration, and poor personal organizational skills. To date, we have been more pre-occupied with her health - she has uncontrolled epilepsy and until recently has been suffering up to 30 seizures per day. She is now only having one per week, if that.

If she is formally diagnosed with dyspraxia does this mean she will receive help from an OT/physio? She is 9 and having recently moved areas and schools she is now being assessed by an Ed psyche (thanks to new very supportive school!)

Feel bad if I've not been requesting help for her dyspraxia if I should have done so, but her epilepsy and immune system problems have been so time consuming (and more urgent) to date.

I know what you mean about guilty feelings about should have dones. I tend to try to get the most serious problems sorted first - which would definitely be the epilepsy in your DDs case. Now that the seizures are more in control it will hopefully give you more time to follow up OT and physio. The school seem to be on board with trying to assess and support you, so go for it.

Its worth asking your gp for refereal to ot but it does depend on the area you're in. In my county the OT's wont see children with dsypraxia. They are so underfunded they say they can only see children with significant physical disabilities, i'e those who can't walk etc. They wont even accept referals for assessments from dyspraxia children as they say theres no point in assessing them when they cant offer any therapy.

I've always thought that DS was dyspraxic, but an assessment with an OT said if he was, it was only very mild - it was very frustrating as the overall score average was hugely raised by him catching a beanbag ten tims in a row!!!! He failed everything else spectacularly!

Newlifw4us - we sound to have very similar children! DS is 7 and also has epilepsy. He's doing pretty well at the moment as he has been on the ketogenic diet since last May and it has bee a miracle for us but we have had some horrific times with him - spent most of Jan - May in hospital last year. He still has quite a few "jerks" each day, but nothing like the horror that was last year.

Fatzak - I haven't been on here 4 a while but I believe it was you that I spoke 2 earlier this year. I think I may have suggested a prophelactic antibiotic which has made an enormous difference to my Dd ( sincere apologies if it wasn't you). We had exactly the same thing when Dd in year 2 - she was off school for 5 months.

When she went back her seizures dropped off for a while but returned with a vengence by the September. GOSH started her on a prophelactic which didn't stop the seizures (up to 30 per day) but stopped her being unwell so frequently. We moved in July to a new area and new school - the teacher said with 24 hours "gosh she's very dyspraxic".

She was assessed at 6.5 years by physio and passed (not sure how - when she couldn't perform the task they started again and said "in she nearly did it". Your comment re the bean bag made me laugh - my Dd is good at tennis but will walk into a door frame 50 per cent of the time!