If you have a child with dyspraxia at what age were they diagnosed?

[MegaLegs]

Just curious. We were told this week that ds4 most likely has dyspraxia, he's 19 months. I've been searching old threads and many of you with children with dyspraxia seemed to get a dx once they were school age.
What were your children like as babies?

Still waiting - he'll be 9 shortly. Motor skill issues were confirmed by OT at 5-6 though and there had been suspicions on and off since about 3 1/2.

As a baby he actually rolled early, supported himself on tummy by 3 1/2 months, sat at 6 months, crawled by 9 and cruised shortly afterwards. Wasn't confident walking across a room until 14 months and didn't stand until he could walk, walked always at a trot. Didn't like certain foods like pasta until about 2 presumably due to texture. He wasn't into kicking a ball , climbing couldn't jump or pedal a trike by 3 as an example of some fo the indicators which , in retrospect, might have been there.

1. He is not the most obvious dyspraxic on the planet since his gross motor skills are OK but his fine motor skills are poor, and he also has memory/organisational issues

As a baby he was fine. Slower to walk than his sister but he was up and off by the time he was 14 months or so. Good at feeding himself. Some language issues

DS1 didn't crawl until he was 1 and walked at 17months. He was a little slow to talk by HV standards (only single words at 2). Couldn't jump with both feet togther until 3.5 and couldn't pedal at all until about 4 - still not great and can't ride a bike or scooter. I remember as a toddler he had to be taught how to climb - he had no natural instinct about where to place his feet on a ladder for example. At nursery he was very reluctant to do any task that involved fine motor skills.

Now much better - largely down to sympathetic handling and extra help at primary school. Still behind his peers in motor skills but not excessively. We have no dx - and don't intend to get one unless he starts to struggle and/or we have difficulty getting him the help he needs.

ds4, 4yr old next month, still not peddaling, poor fine and gross skills, very clumsy, didnt walk till 16mths old, still falls frequent, very poor speech, which has just started coming on over past 6 mths or so, many signs of dyspraxia, still no dx, they prefer to say development delay for his speech, and blame his hypermobility on all his clumsiness. oh yeah, still feeds more food to the floor and the table than himself lol, so messy!

I think they dont bother much with "dyspraxia" because its kind of vague in their opinion, taking into consiration the other issues which often follow autism.

Further, i dont see that their intervention is going to be any different whether they think our boy has dyspraxia (which i know he does) or not. He gets the OT/SLT and physio and we work in front of the mirror with mouth movements and go to the park for climbing frames and have him use his bike whenever we can.

In my opinion, "dyspraxia" is just another word for something they cant put their finger on, just a label which could mean so many things. Its supposed to be like "apraxia" which is what people who have had a stroke have, because they "had" language/ability and then lost it. Our kids who are "dyspraxic" have similar problems but never had the "ability" to start with.

Another thing, when we as parents look to "clinicians" and use "their" words to describe our children, I feel we often get caught up in the "clinical" model, as opposed to just seeing our kids' problems and calling them what they are.

eg: my child is "dyspraxic" as opposed to my child is unable to use his legs and hands at the same time, or my child stumbles on kerbs of sidewalks and cannot climb a climbing frame.

The very word "autism" is so splintered in its meaning to begin with, no child being the same or having the same difficulties. So i dont believe there is a "dyspraxia" so to speak. Its as splintered as is the diagnosis.

I agree with what you say mmddww about dyspraxia being an "umbrella" term as children with dyspraxia vary so much. At the moment I'm feeling a strange mixture of relief and sorrow that we possibly have a dx and, yes a 'label' to expalin ds's problems. My ds is very different though. He has been floppy and hypermobile from birth and with global developmental delay, he sat at 14 months and has just started to crawl at 19 months. He has practically no language and his fine motor skills are limited.

Like you say there are obviously different degrees of being dyspraxic - I hope I'm not just clutching at straws because two proffessionals have said it's the most likely dx.

Hi Megalegs - I have to say Im quite surprised at your diagnosis - Im a paed physio, and I would be hard pressed to tell you the difference between dyspraxia and devt delay at 19 months.

Was it your Paediatrician who gave you the diagnosis? What did they say was their reason for the label?

Hi Fusby - it's not a definate dx and I completely admit I'm clutching at straws. The OT just said that in her experience our ds was very like many other children she'd seen who had dyspraxia. Also, at his very first assessment when he was 8 months the consultant paed said the most likely outcome would be dyspraxia.

He has an appointment with the paed neurologist at Southampton next month and I don't know what's in store for him but hopefully we'll be nearer to finding a dx.

tbh I would be a little wary of accepting dyspraxia as the dx in such a young child. It is a such a non-specific term. You may find that in itself it doesn't attract the help he really needs as his issues may be perceived as skills which could develop over time with minimal intervention.