Dyspraxia. How can I help my son?

[OHforDUCKScake]

Ive seen the school, they gave my an extensive questionnairre of which I ticked 'yes' to 95% of the questions, they gave my some information to read, which was interesting and explained even more things about him. Why he stuggles to eat quietly, why he only appears to have awareness of 6 inches in front of him when he scoots. Why hes struggles to STOP! When running or scooting etc etc etc

I spoke to the doctor who shrugged. Literally. He shrugged.

Said its out of his hands, theres OT for school age children. See the school.

Thats it.

THATS IT?!

This just makes me panic. I thought might be able to give him excercises for at least his hypermobility.

The school is filling out the questionnaire and they can follow up on it but 'it might be quicker to see your GP'.

So basically it seems for a while at least, no one is helping my son.

So Im going to do what I do best and Im going to read, research, ask, learn and help my son in the best way that I can.

What books can I buy? What ones are best? What excercises are good? What activities can benefit him? (He does football and swimming).
What tricks of the trade do I need to know?

Anything at all, please please help me.

I phoned the Occupational Therapist department re help for DS & did a lot of reading.

Swimming & judo are good for improving their core strength which helps.

A step at the dinner table to put his feet on will help him balance better & take some of the pressure off. DS really struggled to sit at the table (shifting, standing up etc) but the step really helped as did caring cutlery.

DS had developed a fear of trying things for fear of failure so the OT suggested doing things and letting DS do the very last bit so he felt that he was achieving and when mastered, let him do the last 2 steps if that makes sense.

Repetition is also really important. It's a bit like retraining their brain!

We had our OT assessment recently and even though DS scored in the bottom 9%, the OT has discharged us because of the work we are doing with him at home so even getting a referral doesn't really get you any help! They did send a report to the school advising that he has extra support and attention when doing PE as well recommendations for his writing /drawing. They also sent us some sheets of exercises to work on. Perhaps of could phone your OT department and ask them to send you some through?

Biggest piece of advice - learn to take a deep breath! It is frustrating when DS can't take his jumper of when he is tired but at least now I've taken a step back and don't get upset about it!

Good luck x

Thanks s much for your reply, its been really helpful. Im going to re read it in the morning so I remember what you've advised me to do.

Thanks again, its really appreciated.

I can't take all the credit - I got a lot of advice on here by searching the term dyspraxia!!

On a positive note, DS learned to ride his bike last weekend! Not bad for someone whose balance is in the bottom 9%! I really think this is down to strengthening his core (judo & swimming),

I remember feeling quite alone at first as friends could see DS was a bit different but they didn't really understand how upsetting it is to see DS try twice as hard but not get anywhere. MN really helped - NHS not really bothered as I am a proactive parent who wants to help DS! I think understanding dyspraxia as a parent helps put you in a good position. I spoke to DS's teacher and explained my concerns about dyspraxia (she didn't know what it was) and she seemed dismissive but 6 months later she apologised for thinking DS was lazy and had actually read up on Dyspraxia to see how she could help him in school. He also won an award for most improved pupil which is down to the fact that both the school and us at home took a different approach to motivating him.

Now we just need to work on catching DS up with his peers as 2 years of not wanting to write or draw have left him a bit behind...

Hope the positives from our story help (from your OP it sounds like you will need to make the successes happen yourself!).