How to go about getting a dyspraxia diagnosis for 5 year old DD

[Gardenista]

I am hoping some one with experience can help. I suspect my 5 year old has dyspraxia. Her fine motor skills are average - she can write and draw but she really struggles with gross motor skills - she was in the gross motor skills intervention group at school last year (bottom 10% of children get help) and the maths intervention group. She cannot catch a ball, ride a bike - no interest in a balance bike or a pedal bike (although she did ride a trike at nursery). She really struggles with dancing. She cannot skip, she cannot hop, her balance is really poor. her hand eye c-ordination is poor. I've recently noticed that all her school friends ae able to swing themselves on a swing by putting their legs forward and back. I have been trying to teach her this for the last 6 months by breaking it down into little steps but she just can't do it.

All of my 4 siblings have struggled with what we suspect is undiagnosed dyspraxia - same issues with catching balls, riding bikes, falling, struggling with stairs (keeping balance), we all struggled to learn to drive. We all have very high IQs ( so obtained academic scholarships to private schools in the 1980s, straight A students) so i think this masked the difficulties as we did well at school, so none of us have ever ben diagnosed.

My daughter is repeating reception as she is summer born - she didn't meet expectations in her school report last year - in particular she seems to struggle with multi-part instructions. School say she is clearly bright so will catch up in time. They thought it borderline whether she should repeat reception or not.

If it's relevant - her dad and paternal granddad have autism, as do my brother and her maternal grandad. She is not autistic. Like me and my siblings, her verbal reasoning is good, her non verbal reasoning is very poor.

She is somewhat hypermobile, never diagnosed but she was treated by a physiotherapist when she was a baby for a flat head who mentioned it.

I'd like to push for an assessment of her abilities (a diagnosis?) so that i know what areas she needs extra help with - I can probably do this with her myself if I knew what it was she is struggling with. It seems to be gross motor, balance, proprioception and following multi- part instructions. I'd like to help her avoid or at least mitigate the struggles I've had, and i'd like to do it while she is young and adaptable.

can the school do anything or do I need to see the GP? Is 5 too young for an accurate diagnosis? Will the NHS help or do i need to go private? We are in the midlands. Any help would be so appreciated

Schools are not medically qualified to diagnose, so I'd start with the GP and ask to be referred to a paediatrician.

And with all the family history, the struggles with proprioception and following multi part instructions, I wouldn't necessarily discount autism. It manifests itself in many different ways.

Thank you Ellie. i was concerned about the family history of autism so took her privately to see a clinical psychologist when she was 3 and a half years old - for reassurance re autism and as I wanted a letter of support to start her at reception in school at 5 not at 4. the psychologist assessed her in the 90 minute appointment said she wasn't currently showing any signs of autism, and that she would not write me a letter to support deferring her reception place to age 5 because she was bright and it wasn't needed. Is 3 and a half too young to assess if she has autism - the appointment was playing with toys etc.

She ended up starting reception at 4 because the local authority said if i sent her at 5 she would have to go to year 1. Her end of reception report they are assessed in 17 areas - she was meeting expectations in 11 of thosse but 6 were emerging (so not at the required standard) - those were
managing feelings and behaviours
making relationships
writing
numbers
people and communities
the world
I'm not particularly concerned about this as she is so young, and repeating reception anyway but it is strange when I have had comments from nursery staff/ teachers etc that she is clearly very bright as her progress in school has been poor.
At nursery they said that she had issues with boundaries and did not listen the adults and follow instructions, but that she had an amazing memory. She does have a good memory - she will mention things which happened when she was 2 and a half - like a friend she made on hat holiday and has not been mentioned since, which surprises me, but I have a very good memory too, for things which happened in my childhood and also to be able to learn things off by heart for exams etc ( i regularly failed mental arithmetic tests though and found maths and physics very difficult)

We were convinced our son was autistic when he was three.

Various so called professionals told us he wasn't. A psychologist said he definitely wasn't autistic on the basis of 1 hour's observation.. An experienced nursery school headteacher who I respected highly, didn't think he was.

An experienced teacher said there was nothing wrong with him- he was just naughty/awkward/lazy (whichever adjective she fancied that day
He was finally diagnosed with autism when he was nearly 8.

He too had a good memory (he still does) and would tell us about things that had happened that we had long forgotten about, years later, even to the point of telling us the year it had happened.

He had problems with fine motor skills and could not eat yoghurt or ice cream without spilling it all over himself and struggled to hold a pencil -for a long time he held it in a clenched fist. He's fine now though and is fantastic at drawing.

When he was 7 he was about age appropriate with his learning but infant education is very visual and hands on. As he got older , and teaching became more auditory, and learning became more abstract and complex, the gap between him and his peers widened, and he found school much more difficult.

This is interesting:
the-art-of-autism.com/understanding-the-spectrum-a-comic-strip-explanation/

Thank you @Ellie56
This is very useful information. I’m sOrtiz your son had to wait so long for a diagnosis

Sorry your son had to wait so long