Diagnosing Dyspraxia or sensory issues

[kalpamum]

Please can any one advise who I should request to see my DD regarding praxic and sensory issues.

My DD has always struggles with motor skills, concentration, sensory, poor muscle tone even though I have supported her to try and improve. Nursery and school have commented on this all through school. When she was 6 was diagnosed with having a benign hand tremor and put poor handwriting down to this. At 11 after lot of arguments at school we have found that she is severely dyslexic with complex difficulties and now have a statement. At this time I got a referral to Pediatrician, we went down the route of mild CP and was discharged from Ped and referred to Neurologist. MRI was done and came back clear thankfully. Now we are discharged from them! OT saw her but only did auditory and visual testing and discharged. She is still under Physio for poor muscle tone.

So we are still no further in getting an answer/support for physical difficulties. When I saw Pediatrician we did discuss dyspraxia, but she said she doesn't like labeling things! Now that DD is 12 she is struggling to understand why she is different and getting low marks for physical/practical subjects and still has a hand writing ability of a 6/7 yr old. From researching praxic/sensory conditions I do feel she has these difficulties and would like a diagnosis so school can support her and DD understands why she struggles. At the moment support for handwriting, fine motor, sensory and vestibular are mentioned on the statement but school are not doing anything and no specific support outlined in statement. At primary she had a posture cushion and slope board but since starting high school she has not used these (doesn't want to be different) and school not encouraged. She has a net book to type lengthy pieces of work.

Who do you think I should get in touch with again to discuss a diagnosis.

Public or Private, and what are are you in?

If Public - I think the route you would take is through the GP

Public or Private is good question from Mrslaughan. We are not in UK but we have gone public for some things and private for others. Public here is much, much, much slower and while our ds has had dyspraxia and spd assessment through the public sector we cannot access remediation publically because of where we are so will have to follow this up privately. As far as who for both assessment of both of above and remediation it has/will be Occupational Therapist and we will also need some Physio support as well for remedial

We are public! I have been told that there is no support for therapy in our area for dyspraxia;so I guess this is why no one wants to take responsibility and diagnose in the public sector. We had a private OT assessment that shows praxic tendencies/ sensory/vestibular but at the time we were focusing on other physical issues so did not have full dyspraxia assessment. We fought for mention of this to be on statement, but school are not supporting or putting recommendations from the private OT into place. We have argued this and school have supposedly spoken to NHS OT who has said they do not need to support her and we would have to go somewhere for private remedial. This is where the problem lies; nearest one I can is over 50 miles away. I have told school that if this is the only route then DD's educational would suffer as we would have to pull her out of school for probably a full day when we had an appointment so inconvenient for every one. (At the moment school using excuse that DD does not have the time for specific support/intervention on top of the curriculum course work)

DD at mainstream, just moved up to secondary and I am wondering if I am on a loosing battle to get any specific support for DD. Statement does state 12.5 hrs support but can't see any evidence of this so far other than one hour a week where pulled out of class to do spelling and reading computer program with a group of other pupils. No one to one at all, TA in class but attached to another child with behavioral issues.

you don't happen to live in hertfordshire? apparently it is impossible to get support for dyspraxia here.

I am no help as we have gone private.......

Mrslaughan - Thank you for your reply. No we are in Yorkshire.

Have you been successful in getting any support in school from recommendations from private assessments, and what kind of support?

DS is in a private school (we have had to fight tooth and nail to keep him there) - small class size, high teacher to student ratio, then 3 one on one sessions a week, which we pay for. Once a week I take him into london for OT - His OT has really been transformative for DS.

We have thought about moving him to public, but I worry he will get less than nothing.

I think we need to move to a city. We have no private OT's near to where we live!

The place we go - I know see's patients who live oversea's , or elsewhere in the UK, which means they don't see them regularly....they put together a program for them, which is implemented by someone else....I am not sure if that is an OT, or say their Mum....maybe that is worth considering?

Mrslaughan, would you mind telling me where you go, am looking for someone for my ds.

HI, My son has dyspraxia (nhs ot has said he does, although not in writing yet). We've moved schools and are much happier and he is doing much better, but have been told he's still not progressing as much as he should be. He's 6. I'm considering looking into to private ot. Can anyone recommend or suggest ot therapists they are happy with or not in the St. Albans , or hertfordshire area? I'd like a plan to be created for me and school to follow, I'm just given a random group of ideas, with no plan in place to target specifics and think we need more focused direction. thansk for your help.

I'd be interested in knowing who your ot is as well mrslaughlan, see my post in the thread as well. cheers

Hopscotch children's therapy, Harley st , London. If you google it - their site will come up - they actually have some good information on it.
I actually think there hourly rate is the same as hemispheres in st Albans - but have the added expense of getting in.
They do have some saturday sessions though.

Thanks for the detals on Hopscotch. What are your thoughts on Hemispheres? Just wondering how much of an improvement you've noticed since the start of therapy? Our major issue is that my son doesn't even want to try anything really, his self esteem is so low, he just assumes he'll fail before he starts. I try to do loads of fun things at home with him, but he just never really wants to do it. We are thinking perhaps actually a pyschologist would be better short term to try to help change his mindset. Does the OT delve into this, or just the physical therapy side of things? Also, did they create a precise guided plan? I was handed a booklet of ideas, tons of them and said to try them and just mix it up, my problem is i have so many ideas, and I try them, but he really doesn't want to do any and it's like pulling teeth to get him to want to engage. thanks for your time, anyone with thoughts on this.

As a direct question, has anyone pursued cbt therapy or something similar for kids with dyspraxia to help them get over the fight/flight desire not to try when something is hard? Just considering this as well.

Climber - I will PM you tonight.....but his progress is nothing short of astonishing