Dyspraxia - should I ask our OT if our 20 mnth DS old enough to be diagnosed with it?

[katendmom]

If you read my earlier post - you might already know that DS (20 month old) was diagnosed with a speech development delay (wasn't saying any words at the age of 19 months) that was secondary to his sensory hypersensitivity (tactile - texture). He was evaluated by a team of an occupational therapist, a child development specialist and a social worker. They referred him to an occupational therapist (whom we are seeing for the 3rd time today).

We think she's really helping and we think DS is showing some nice progress... but what worries us is that he doesn't have like a definite diagnosis.

I even looked at Autism but he really doesn't have some of the "classical" symptoms. Then I stumbled upon "dyspraxia" ... and again - he doesn't match all symptoms but does match a good bunch.

So should I ask our OT if that is in fact what he has? But why did his evaluation team didn't say anything? Or is that because at this age he is too young to be evaluated for dyspraxia?

When I posted on the "Behavior" thread - a couple of people who responded suggested that I don't pursue it right now... but our DS is our life and we worry about him so much... so any advises from you, experienced moms?

The reason why they dont diagnose dyspraxia is because the intervention they use is basically the same as what they use for spectrum problems. You will get the usual OT and maybe SLT or physio.

They dont really know how to deal with dyspraxia in my opinion. My boy ticked ALL of the boxes and I am still trying to convince our arrogant paediatrician that he has it. Its shows in the way he walks, the way he talks, the way his mouth moves, etc etc.

I wonder whether i want yet another label for my child in this though. If you get the label, will they actually do anything different for the dyspraxia?

I was convinced my Ds2 had dyspraxia from a similar age but in general found that professionals are very reluctant to diagnose it early. In addition, Ds2 had other delays such as speech and language and has some autistic traits and I think the "typical" picture of a child with dyspraxia is a bright articulate child who has social difficulties and physical problems. Therefore they were reluctant to diagnose dyspraxia to a child who could be autistic, learning difficulties, etc. We were also told that some children grow out of those types of symptons and so it was better to wait (I was not convinced then and I remain to be convinced now of that however!). At age 6, Ds2 still has huge motor problems and motor planning difficulties and still has no official diagnosis of anything although he sometimes get described as autistic and / or dyspraxic. So I doubt you will get diagnosis out of your OT but you could ask.

I think the most important thing is to get help for the difficulties that you could describe by that label and if you are able to get that without diagnosis then I shouldn't worry too much. A diagnosis may be useful for accessing help later especially at school, but it sounds like you are already getting help and so it probably isn't that important now.

I feel a lot less concerned about not having a diagnosis than I used to. To be honest part of the reason I wanted a diagnosis of "dyspraxia" was because it felt less scary than a diagnosis of "autism" and I hoped that it would help us to predict how our son would turn out. But no-one can really predict that and a diagnosis doesn't actually change the child or the nature of the difficulties.

I definitely think you are doing the right thing though in getting help now. I take my Ds2 to see a private OT plus he gets OT at school and it's helping. But I regret so much that I let myself be reassured that he was "lower end of normal" at the age of 21/2 and therefore he didn't get any OT for some years. The earlier you start the better.

Hope that helps

Thank you both and yes, saker it does help. I think like you back then - I now look for a "diagnosis" for hopes that it will allow me to glean into my son's future... to predict how he'll be in school, what other difficulties he might encounter down the road...

Today I called and started the ball rolling on having him seen and evaluated by a developmental pediatrician. I hear the waiting period can be as long as a year. He is seeing an OT once a week now but it was actually her who suggested that I start the process with Dev Ped - if anything (aside from diagnosis), it might help him with getting access to more OT...

But on another hand... honestly... let's imagine that you have a child without any delays... now who could predict how he or she will be 5 years down the road, really? So I think we, moms of little ones with unique needs, are just on a such hyper alert for everything while moms of kids who hit all the milestones at expected times tend to just relax a bit more and go with a flow and dream about the future rather than try and mold it!

I really wish both of your boys (and you of course) lots of luck and I hope that each next month and each next year gets easier and easier for them and you

I'd def try to get the ball rolling with the dev paed, but like others have said it is difficult to get a diagnosis of dyspraxia. My ds1 (5.5) has been under a paed for 2.5 years now, and on his notes, it still says something like social and physical co-ordination delay - what the paed says is the 'english' for dyspraxia. (Though I think personally it should just say dyspraxia, which is a recognisable condition, but that's another story!)

They were wavering between asd and dyspraxia for a long time, and were happier to decide once he got a bit older, because apparently if it was asd, it would have been clearer by now. I think at 20 months, it would be really difficult to say which it is. Hope that makes sense!

Dyspraxia is a bit of an umbrella term that is often misused. I think this is sometimes because their are people and organisations out there who claim to be able to treat and cure it, often for rather a lot of money.

At 20 months a child is still learning skills and refining their movements, so dyspraxia (or rather Developmental Coordination Disorder) should not be used as a diagnosis.

However, if you have concerns about your childs movement skills, a referral to a Paed, OT and/or physio would help as you would get an assessment and some ideas on how to help things along.