Just got dyspraxia confirmed for DS - now what?

[Fridayschild]

I have suspected dyspraxia for DS aged 10 for a while and now the paediatrician has confirmed it. He is seeing the SENCO at school once a week for support, uses a lap top instead of struggling with a pen. He is not a bad enough case for on going NHS physio support though we had one helpful meeting with the physio.

Really my experience to date is that if I am told, for example, DS struggles to write with a pen partly because he lacks shoulder strength, and I think through this, find archery and send him to archery, everyone says oh yes that's a good idea. Or he seems to lack core strength so I require him to play with his ipad while sitting on a gym ball, and people have not thought about this but agree it will help with with core muscles. The various professionals are much better at pointing out problems than suggesting solutions.

So I wonder if this is everyone else's experience and what I do now is to become my child's champion? I am ok with this in principle but worried that in practice I do not have the knowledge to keep coming up with bright ideas. Can anyone suggest somewhere I can go to find out what other people do, best practice for dyslexia?

He has seen an OT before the dyspraxia was confirmed but I was pretty disappointed tbh. The paediatrician has referred us back so I will have another go now I have a better idea about what I need to know.

Thanks for the fact files!

Ds has dyspraxia. He sees ot a lot!

It's all about core strength. You can't have shoulder, arm, hand or finger strength without it.

Lots of exercises to do

Hold a half tin of beans in out streached arms. Lift to shoulder in straight arms to head level at the side and down. Do about 20 times. Loading and emptying washing machine, carrying shopping bags ( both arms) wheelbarrow walking, push ups on walls, all yoga. List is quite long. Ds does gymnastics.

For the coordination is lots of ball games. Writing with both hands at the same time, using non dominant hand to bear weight while dominant hand does a puzzle.

Yes, sorry, but expect to be dc's champion but probably with other helpful ideas that you can use along the way.

OTs and physios are the folk for exercises to increase strength and performance, and OTs can sort the work-rounds, like pencil grips and special cushions or chairs to have at school or writing slopes etc

With the physio exercises, I think it is logical to expect that dc will need some new ones once the first ones have done their job - the next batch need to be a bit more challenging, to build strength further. So ask for another appointment maybe 6+ months after the last one.

My ds is dyslexic-dyspraxic, and touch types. He saw a physio a lot growing up because of the number of sports injuries, so core stability got looked after that way - and because of the exercises done with the sports classes.

At GCSE/Alevel time we needed expert reports to justify the extra time and typing concessions.

I'm not sure I'm helping much, but wish you the very best of luck

we have loads of physio/ot excercises for dd's hypermobility relating to core strength, what we do not have is a diagnosis of dyspraxia. [eyeroll] I am surprised that you have had so little input from the ot/pt

superman, lieing on tummy lifting legs and feet.
table. hands and knees, level hips and shoulders. vertical arms and thighs. lift one limb at a time keeping level shoulders and hips.

both do gym

Thanks all. I guess I need to work out how much I can load onto DS in terms of physical exercise on top of touch typing practice - this is wht the archery classes and the Swiss ball are good, because they don't feel like homework in another form.

It's just 15-20 mins three / four times a week. That's why he does dance and gym.