Dyspraxia

[heatingsoup]

My DC has just started primary school, we have been concerned that something has been amiss developmentally since < a year old.

After parents evening we've been told they're very academic yet they struggle a lot with certain things. Having spoken to GP they're happy to refer to OT as there's also a family history of dyspraxia.

What sort of help would we expect or push for from the school? Is there funding these days? Can we offer to pay for extra support at school?

Knowing of family history and things being amiss we have tried to target activities that would help motor skills but we've yet to find something DC wants to stick with (and something that doesn't result in tantrums when they have to go).

Any advise taken onboard!

Look at the Dyspraxia Foundation website for support and ideas in the interim. A move n sit cushion, writing slope, pencil grips, checking seated position, handout reminders of slides and step by step instructions, organisational support, touch typing may help. Ds found activities such as sailing and climbing more straightforward than team sports and it helped his postural control and core strength.

We do: Riding for the Disabled, Motor Skills United, some calisthenics, jujitsu, extra PE with another year group. All that Liz said above. Take them swimming but don't stress about lessons, just keep having fun in the water (ours is now 10 and ready for lessons but it has taken years). Attentional difficulty may be present and watch for difficulty in maths and English due to co-occurring possibilities like dyslexia.

The key is to have fun and target any key areas OT points out like shoulders, pelvis, midline crossing and core.

Gross motor is the foundation for fine motor. Obstacle courses at home, plenty of park time, even soft play if they still want to.

Fine motor again take cue from your child - do they like pottery, paints, building with lego? Dough disco (youtube) great for warm up of hands. Lots of playing with pre handwriting patterns - bath crayons, steamy window, blackboard - zigzags, castle tops and circles. Remind them its only practice and its fine if wobbly! Or just 'draw' with a finger on textures like carpet, wall, lino etc.

Movement Matters website worth a look, and Sensory Direct for ideas for kit for home/school. We have a weighted blanket coming today and DS has weighted lap pad at school to help with proprioception - it 'grounds' him so he feels less at sea. Mix of type/handwriting good idea in long term.

Oh - movement breaks too - ask for school to do these esp when curriculum becomes more sedentary in Y1. After 30 mins or so of reading/writing the child does a few mins of deep pressure exercise. So squeeze palms together like strenuous prayer, hug them self, push the top of their head down - gentle but firm enough to give the body input. Great for helping with attention drifting dues to body saying - help, where am I in space! (proprioception again).

School have a nominal 6k to spend on each child with additional needs - so you can ask for small group motor skills sessions and kit like wedge cushion (they could etc one to try and see if DC benefits) and they should differentiate and make reasonable adjustments. DS liked working on handwriting using ipad at school - writing wizard and dexteria.

After that ask about other interventions - SENCo/head/teacher should help. Often they can apply for top up funding from the local authority after a year or two.

Make sure emotional needs are taken into account, its tough being a kid with dyspraxia - tiring and frustrating when other kids crack writing and you still struggle (Y1/2) so long term think nurture group etc

Watch speech and language as sometimes dyspraxia has an effect on articulators and how clear speech is. Talking and listening and memory games are good to have in mind.

Then there's EHCP's but don't go there until all else tried as its an exhausting process!

So much helpful advice there kiss the teapot thank you

Honestly - it's one of those conditions you're likely to get minimal support for... especially if you have a well-behaved, keen to please child who just happens to have the condition like poor DD2 is! Last year we got fuck all in the way of support in school because the class teacher just didn't "believe" in the condition and was shocking!

This year (thank fuck we have an epic teacher) we get slightly more - finger and hand strength work with theraputty, gross motor skills programme time twice a week, she uses a writing slope (we provided this just to get it in place faster - school do have one but I went for the path of least resistance), she uses her own specific pens and pencils (she likes a certain make) and increasingly she types work instead of writing it - either on a school laptop or she takes her iPad into school and uses Clicker Docs to wordprocess (it's a fairly child-proof word processor so she can get on with it independently) or an app called Snaptype Pro to photograph worksheets and type directly onto them. Things like rulers with a handle to hold onto as well (we have one well groovy one with a crocodile handle that's soooooo cool).

We do have the emotional wobbles - she was despairing the other week that "my letters don't stay on the line where I've put them" bless her!

The best exercise thing we've found that she loves, and is amazing for core strength and arm/shoulder strength - if you have a clip n climb type place near you - she really benefits from climbing wall sessions there!

yep, would agree with kuponut, depends on teacher. we had one of similar ilk in Y3 but better now. Advocate, print things out, make them listen. Up to 12 years the brain is more flexible in learning motor skills so infant school is the optimum window for developing skills. No cure for dyspraxia, but certainly helps mitigate the problems a lot and boosts their esteem by giving them a toolkit. There are also potential cognitive aspects like lack of organisation/sequencing to be aware of.

*primary school, I meant.

Useful workshop on DCD/Dyspraxia
Evidence based.
Also online workshop for teachers and GP.

Thanks all, as terrible as it sounds, many of his "naughty" behaviours are actually symptoms of dyspraxia, so I'm already feeling hopeful.

School are already onto it and giving in class assistance, I'm holding off telling them it's dyspraxia until we have a formal diagnosis from OT (no idea how long a referral will take ???) but they are already aware that he's struggling.

I may look into getting some of the aids, dinner time is always a struggle as it's like trying to get a bag of cats to stay on a chair so we can try things out then!