Lack of crawling as a baby and inability to ride a bike?

[JustPondering]

DS age 6 with speech disorder and difficulty with social skills had his first OT appointment last week as he cannot pedal a bike, open heavy doors, and is a messy eater. The therapist said that the only problem with his motor skills that she could find where with a knife and fork and we have been advised to get a special cutlery set. He has flexible fingers she said.

She said that DS needs to slow down and try to get less distracted and that would help with things like fastening buttons etc. She also said he has sensory processing problems too and she is going into school to do a programme with him.

I asked why he couldn't pedal a bike if his motor skills were OK and she said she thinks it is because he didn't crawl as a baby has anyone heard this before she said it seems that part of the brain doesn't develop the same way is some babies that don't crawl. Is that right? It's an interesting theory.

Also does speech and social problems plus sensory processing disorder not equal autism? Even if he is friendly and has imagination? I have always thought he is autistic but he has never been assessed. His older brother has been referred to CAMHS by school as they are pretty sure he has aspergers and his younger brother is under the child development team for probable ASD.

Crawling is an important developmental milestone alright. But not to the point where not crawling = motor problems. It's more like, in a development history the fact that a child didn't crawl is often the first pointer that their core strength or reciprocal movement of both sides wasn't developing typically.
So often in therapy, you will have the child do crawling through spaces/tunnels to work on those skills.

OT is not qualified to diagnose autism, but may see pointers that would assist the diagnosis.
He could be friendly, have some imagination (but does he have social imagination i.e. can he easily imagine from a story what the characters know....like in The Gruffalo, why are the other animals afraid of a mouse?) and still be on the spectrum.

If he has sensory processing problems, his difficulty will be that he can't or is not motivated to 'slow down' or 'be less distracted''. Because he has those issues, is the very reason that he wants to rush in order to get through this difficult task.

Try giving him a visual schedule of the steps in tasks (you may need to be very detailed on something like getting dressed).
Also 'backward chaining' tasks i.e. he learns and becomes competent with the last step first, then the 2nd last and so on.

No idea about the crawling thing, but I would have thought your ds may also warrant assessment for ASD. Can you ask for referral or discuss with school/CAMHS?

Handywoman x

DS didn't crawl, but had no problems riding a bike. He does however have dyslexic problem.

DS1 didn't crawl or bum-shuffle and has learned superficially to ride a bike but is no where near proficient (now 12). ASD, SpLD, sensory processing disorder, auditory processing disorder etc. Combined with the sibling factor you seem to have sufficient concern for further assessment.

Thanks for your replies.

DS see's a peadiatrician around every 3 months, she says he doesn't strike her as having a communication disorder as he is very chatty. It is slightly different with my other 2 DC as they fit criteria pretty perfectly where DS2 Is a bit of a mystery

He has a CAMHS appointment in feb, the letter says he is on the social communication pathway. It will be his first appointment, hopefully they will be willing to do some observations. I'm sure he is on the spectrum, he is the first child I suspected had an ASD and it just seems too co-incidental that a few years down the line it turns out that my other children are likely to have autism.

The OT suggested getting him to crawl around lots, so we will give it a go, he does enough crawling around with no encouragement anyway.

I never knew that sensory processing problems could cause him to be fast and distracted, his OT said he is like an excitable puppy that doesn't quite know how to stop And that she gets the impression that he is under sensitive to things and he gets excited of physical activity. I will definitely try breaking down tasks for him. This might sound a bit thick [embarrased] but how can I do the tasks backwards?

I did ask his peadiatrician back when he was 3 if he could have sensory processing disorder because of his constant spinning, jumping, noise etc, but she said she had never heard of it without being part of Autism. She will be getting a copy of the OT report sent to her from the Occupational therapist.

If he already likes crawling, how would he be if you asked him to commando-crawl (on his tummy) or crawl through spaces e.g. one of those play tunnel things?

Yes, the sensory processing could mean he has poor proprioception so he would be getting poor feedback from his joints about where things are...so often those children will do things too fast, too hard, not hard enough, too loud etc.
And they wont get the sensory feedback to help them judge their own performance to learn better for the next time.

I didnt explain that well did I? Backwards Chaining is a teaching method where you teach the last step of a sequence first. So, to teach tying laces, you would do it all until you've made the bow, let him tighten it...then 'ta-dah DS , thats how you tie laces'. Once he is good at that, you teach the 2nd last step and so on. So the child always learns success, not becoming frustrated at the start.

And yes, children can have sensory processing difficulties without being on the spectrum (e.g. children with dyspraxia).

Check out retained reflex therapy.
I went to inpp at Chester.

It could also be dyspraxia. DS has dyspraxia (as well as sensory processing order) - it affects his speech because of the motor planning and sequencing involved. Though that is coming right.
He did crawl - but only for a very short time..... He has finally learnt to ride a bike, but things that involve cross lateral movements are very difficult for him to master - for example learning freestyle, it's not that he can't learn, it just takes Him a very long time.

DS did crawl for about 2 weeks but not properly he dragged one leg a bit like a gorilla, then went straight to walking. He also saw a peadiatrician when he was about 9 month old as he was floppy but the peadiatricain said that he was floppy but some babies just are. His head used to flop back when he was lifted with his arms from lying position. Don't think it could be dyspraxia though if his motor skills are OK on the test the OT did, apart from the knife and fork? His speech problems would fit though, he has phonological speech disorder and some websites say that it is sometimes referred to as dyspraxia if the cause is thought to be neurological in nature.

I'm a bit confused: the OT said his motor skills are fine at 6yo, but he has difficulty manipulating knife and fork, cant ride a bike and has difficulty with buttons (although buttons could still be difficult at 6). He also has difficulty with producing some speech sounds?

He also has 'flexible fingers' and was 'floppy' at 9 months.

His crawling was of a poor quality with no reciprocal movement.

That combination would sound like a child who is having difficulty with motor development in general, but what is the cause? It still could be Dyspraxia, or could be part of the picture of a child who has ASD.
Only you Paedx will have access to the full information.

She didn't in so many words say that his motor skills are fine, she said he isn't going to score low on the test, so i asked her why he couldnt pedal a bike then and she then said it was probably because he didn't crawl.

Yes he still has problems with his speech, his speech rate is too fast and he can't sound out clusters, for example angry in pronounced as anry, and granny is pronounced as fanny [embarrased] He also can't read or write yet, he sounds out his words but then says them backwards.

I also think he is still floppy, he seems very loose and sits in the W formation most of the time, he doesn't like sitting cross legged.

Would CAMHS be able to diagnose if it is dyspraxia? If not I wonder if I can ask to see another peadiatrician, my youngest sons peadiatrician is brilliant and she is from the same centre.

He is very social and extremely happy and cheerful, he has to attend social skills groups through speech therapy because he cant take turns, he has to win, he dominates conversations and doesn't pause to let others speak. His speech reports always focus around his vivid imagination and that he gets distracted a lot and has to have continual reminders to keep on task.

It is really frustrating not knowing what exactly his difficulties are.

He also had really bad reflux and a milk intolerance as a baby.

Depends on the CAMHS...different places have different criteria for the diagnosis IME.
Dyspraxia stands alone as a diagnosis if the child has no other condition that could cause a movement problem (e.g. ASD, CP ) they have a typical IQ (so not related to a learning disability) and have significant movement difficulties which impact on daily function.
Typically diagnosed using a combination of OT and Psychology assessments. Usually the Psych assessment will show significantly better verbal over performance IQ subtests.

If his only gross motor difficulty is cycling a bike, then it probably is related to crawling. I presume they did a standard movement assessment so he should have been fine to hop, stand on one leg, throw and catch, bounce a ball?

Can he manage one of the pedal free bikes? If he can travel for a short distance balancing on one I would be inclined to think it's related to the reciprocal movements for pedalling.

I have never tried a pedal free bike. He has difficulty with a scooter, and could never use one of the little tikes cars and he used to only be able to go backwards on one of those toddler ride on cars.

Yes he could hop and balance on one leg. He was fine with most of the assessment apart from she kept having to tell him to slow down because he was doing it all to fast and getting flustered.

I will have to wait and see what CAMHS think. I do understand that he has strengths that could rule out ASD and he is definitely different from my other 2 children, they are both very serious and shy away from contact, DS2 loves physical contact and chats away all day. He is very fun to be around but exhausting