Possible Dyspraxia

[MustTidyPlayroom]

DS (7) has a vague diagnosis of dyspraxia and I am hoping for a little help in dealing with some of his fairly challenging behaviour. I've posted here on the special education needs board, but there doesn't seem to be many people around.

If any of you could spare a minute or two I would be very grateful - Thank you.

Dyspraxia is not just about motor skills, DS has fine motor dyspraxia - hand writing is attricious , but his gross Motor skills are above average.
However his biggest challenge is sequencing actions, so ask him to kick a ball - fine , ask him to run up to a stationary ball and kick it into a goal , he will find that very difficult. add the pressure of peers watching and he will probably refuse to try.
So many people - even people who should know , don't recognize dyspraxia , infact DS saw 3 diff OT's before his current one and not one suggested dyspraxia, even when we talked about his difficult behaviour - he would have preferred you to think he was naughty than admit he couldn't do something - this hid his "disavility" if you like.
Sorry I haven't read your post comprehensively and will look more closely tomorrow , but I would be looking for a 2nd (or 3rd)opinion, but where you get that will depend on what you can afford....
We did a multidisciplinary assessment , but key to Ds diagnosis was a highly specialized OT ( doing a SiPT assessment I think it is called) the and the physio - maybe a developmental physio? dS has had language difficulties as well so speech therapist was key for him too, as the difficulties ate all related to the motor planning and sequencing issues.
The good news is - now we understand him and he is getting very targeted therapy, he is doing really really well, and we really no longer experience the challenging behaviour you describe.
The best book I have read on dyspraxia is called "making inclusion work for children with dyspraxia" by gill Dixon and Louis addy. It is really approachable and makes our children's challenges very easy to understand.
Gill Dixon also has quite a good website - something like dyspraxiainfo.com?
Oh and I also have a dnephew with dyspraxia (gross and fine motor) and my sister also has had the behaviour you describe.
HTH

Oh and yes the tantrums are because a child with dyspraxia has to work so much harder to achieve things, that they get worn out. I find DS needs plenty if downtime and opportunity to recharge his batteries.

From what a paediatrician told me, the guidelines state that there has to be significant difficulties in all areas to warrant a dx of dyspraxia - which is maybe why there is a reluctance to dx in your instance.
This doesn't mean that there aren't severe elements of dyspraxia though!
There also seems to be a trend towards a dx of DCD - Developmental co-ordination disorder - which seems to be the catch all.
I find the behaviour has got more challenging as my DS has got older and recognises the differences more and more between him and his peer group. It's that age old thing of tell someone that they're bad often enough and they become bad. If our DCs see that they struggle more than everyone else, they become disillusioned, have lower self-esteem and find other distractions.
I think my DS sometimes has the attitude of either I put in 200% to achieve what everyone else takes 100% to do, or take the punishment for not doing it!
Totally agree with mrslaughan that sleep and rest is essential. The worst thing really is to make them do more to 'practice' when they have already put in more effort than average, in the first place.

Thank you for your replies - I am not all that bothered about a diagnosis, it's just that when discussing with people (friends, teachers etc) I have nothing to call it - By the time I have got to the end of the very long list of problems they have either lost interest or think I'm making it up.

Our biggest problem has always until now been handwriting which is what triggered our initial assessment. The OT assessed this to be around 2 years behind, with some part not fixable (low muscle tone and hypermobile joints). Ironically since the OT spent a morning in school his hand writing has got worse, which we and his teacher are keeping a close eye on as we know he can do better.

His gross motor skills came out as average, which I was amazed by (the OT has obviously never seen him play football). He is fast running in a straight line, but can't manage quick changes of direction. He can ride a bike - Yes! In a straight line - No! Climbing - poor. Tennis average, but we have spent a small fortune on lessons.

However, as he gets older he is getting frustrated with sports as the gap is widening, his spelling is appalling despite advanced reading (this is a puzzle to his teacher and his school work is slower than his peers. We also have the added problems of the raging tantrums that are really getting me down.