Could my DD have Dyspraxia?

[SystemofaDowny]

Bit of background: DD has been having problems at school since Reception, she has just gone into Year 2. Mostly it is due to her behaviour in class, but her teachers (as do I) believe she is not working to her full potential academically either. Since starting Year 2, she no longer has a Ta with her 1 to 1 in class most of the time. She has not yet managed to remain in the classroom for a whole morning/afternoon so far this term. The school have tried several different strategies to help her but none have been effective in the long term.

Anyway, yesterday a FB friend shared a link to a page about dyspaxia, which I had a look at out of interest. I was quite shocked to notice that DD has a lot of symptoms on the list. She struggles to use a knife and fork, always knocks things over, spills her drink etc. Her handwriting is only just legible, very large, letters poorly formed, different sizes. She can't tie shoelaces and has only just mastered buttons, although is still quite slow at it. Today I sat in during her PE lesson- her teacher commented on how 'awkward' her jumping was i.e both feet seemed to jump at separate times and to different heights. She was also the only child who couldn't hop, despite trying hard(and getting very frustrated) even standing on one leg looked quite tricky for her.

I have wondered about before about whether she has problems with these type of things, but I don't like to compare her to other children too much as I know they are all unique. However there does seem to be a quite big difference between her and her peers and the gap seems to be widening. In the past I put it down to either the fact she has always been slower to do physical stuff (crawled at 1 year, walked at 18 months) but still got there within the 'normal' range. Also I thought that her quite severe long-sightedness (not picked up until age 3) had held her back a bit, ut now I'm starting to worry it could be something else.

Does it sound like my DD could have dyspraxia? and if so is it likely that it being unoticed has contributed to her other behaviour problems at school?

Yes, she certainly could have dyspraxia.

And if she does it can effect her behaviour and her social skills and her academic ability.

You need to get her assessed either by a paedetrician or by an OT.

Go to your GP and ask for a referral.

It does sound like it could be dyspraxia. My 11 year old dd has dyspraxia and she displays a lot of what you describe with physical problems, and also social difficulties. Ask for a referral from your gp and ask to speak to the SENCO at school who should set up some observations/sessions with an OT. Have a look at the dyspraxia foundation website which has a lot of good info. All the best.

Thanks for your replies. I have spoken to her class teacher and the play therapist she sees at school already and they recommended asking the GP for a referral to Occupational Therapy. I am seeing the SENCO tomorrow anyway to sign some forms regarding getting a statement for DD, as by the 2nd day of this term I think they realised it was a BIG mistake to think now she was older she would cope without the 1 to 1 support she was getting last year. I will bring it up with her then and see what she thinks.

On the subject of 1 to 1 support I have been doing some reading (including the dyspraxia foundation website) this evening and I've seen several times that dyspraxic child do much better with it than without. As I've already said DD doesn't seem to be able to stay in her class without it. If it does turn out that this is because she might have dyspraxia then I think it WILL explain the behaviour problems she has at school, because they almost only occur in the classroom and very rarely anywhere else (I have had a hard time trying to explain this to the school) especially not at home, where I suppose she gets something like that at home with me anyway.

I know its not going to solve everything over night as DD does have some other issues. She finds changes to routine/not knowing what happens next and transitions (e.g. finishing literacy then starting art or maths etc) quite difficult and it is usually during these times that she ends up having a total meltdown in class, even when an adult is with her. I haven't read anything that suggests dyspraxia would cause those kind of problems but it is something I was going to talk to the SENCO about tomorrow anyway as I would like to have a strategy for dealing with it so DD can cope with it better.

I would advise asking your GP for a referral to a Paediatrician (preferably a Development Paed) as well as Occupational Therapy, just so you've covered all your bases and made sure your dd is properly assessed.

The Occupational Therapist will assess your dd's fine and gross motor skills, mobility etc, but won't be much help with the issues around transition, a Developmental Paed would look at the bigger picture, rather than just centering around the possibility of a Development Co-ordination Disorder (which is what a lot of places are calling Dyspraxia these days).

(Great MN name by the way )

Could be asd ? A lot if the symptoms if asd and dyspraxia overlap. What is she like socially? Is she hypersensitive to noise? Taste? touch? Sights? Smells?
My son has a dx of both asd ( aspergers) and dyspraxia . Might be better to ask your gp for referral for assessment . That way they can rule out other things first.

moosemama The transition and change of routine issues I kind of blame myself for, particularly because DS has problems with them too, although he doesn't react so explosively (at least not in school) to them as DD. Its because I really need fixed routines to be able to manage day to day stuff so, for them everything at home is always predictable and the same. Also anything new will have been planned well in advance and we use visual aids like wall planners for following routines until we get used to them and countdown timer clocks to give advanced warnings. I think because they have grown up using this stuff, then gone to school where nothing like that exists has caused some of those problems, so I will admit to being at fault there :-(

troutpout I don't really think that DD has asd because I have kind of unofficially been diagnosed with it (a very long story) and she is very unlike me personality wise. If anything it is DS who is most like me and I am sometimes shocked at how he seems to be doing everything the same as I did at his age- he even obsessively learnt all the flags of the world this summer- I did exactly that during the Seoul Olympics in 1988

Socially she is far more confident at talking to other people than I have ever been, but can also understandable be a little shy around new people or in new situations initially. Outside of school she has never had problems playing with other children but does tend to usually pick those who are older or younger than her rather than around her own age. She does also quite often prefer to seek out adults to talk to- possibly because most adults think she is adorable (she is IMO ) whereas sometimes kids think she is a bit annoying maybe.
In school I think she has found it hard to make many friends unfortunately and she has complained quite a lot of having no one to play with at playtime. I think this is partly due to her no asking if she can join in someone elses game, but deciding what she wants to play then trying to get someone to play it with her, if that makes sense. The other reasons I think are because the other kids have seen or know about her behaviour problems (not helped by the school's former policy of publicly making an example of the bad kids as a warning to others) this wasn't as much of a problem in reception year, but now they are older they are pairing up and sticking in set friendship groups. DD did have a close friend for a short time in year 1 however, but after a couple of months the boy's family moved away so he transferred to a different school.

ASD does run in familes, but the symptoms manifest in different ways iyswim.
Motor skills are coming under the new diagnostic assessment criteria, along with sensory issues for the first time next year.

DS is as different personality wise as night and day in many ways to his AS Dad yet is still on the spectrum - just on a different part of it iyswim. His 1/2 bro and Gran sit on different parts again. His dad has NO motor difficulties whatsoever, poor DS is sorely afflicted. You can also have just one or two AS "traits", yet those traits can impact you much more severely than someone with a borderline diagnosis (think of the traits/triad as being like a graphic equalizer - an individual badly impacted by a couple of critical traits can need a LOT of support in the school environment).

I think of the neurodevelopmental disorders as being like olympic rings. They are all inter-related. The exact gene & environmental factor combination varies for each individual a bit. People forget neuroscience is still in it's infancy and the labels/diagnositic criteria in 20 years probably won't look anything like they do today.

I'd ask for a dual assessment ASD & dyspraxia to be sure everything is covered off and that you don't get any nasty suprises later on when she hits secondary iykwim. The more clarity there is around her issues, the easier it is to support her.