Dyspraxia and seeing

[aloha]

Hi Saker!

Ok, can't post much tonight as off for dinner, but yes, ds doesn't follow a point at all well even now (4 in Sept) and will point very, very vaguely. He can't find ANYTHING - even stuff that's right in front of him, is hopeless with jigsaws as finds it so hard to see the pattern if it's not joined up...does any of this sound familiar? Do you think it's part of dyspraxia?

DS1 has dyspraxia, which was dx as an "aside" ("well we don't know what's wrong with him other than the dyspraxia") when he was about 6.

He crawled at the normal time, walked unaided at 11 months & started talking at 15 months. He was very clumsy & once we had ds2 it was obvious there was something wrong- the baby could do things he couldn't. He learned to ride a bike when he was about 9, & went over the handlebars & smashed in his front teeth.

He has worn glasses since he was 3 & had problems with things "disappearing" once they crossed the midline. He also was unaware of where his body was in space & had to look at his arms & legs to see where they were. He had a most peculiar gait and a variety of facial tics. Writing has always been a chore, & as for laces and zips- we just avoided them altogether!! Funnily enough he was the earliest of my four to toilet train & the only one to not have accidents, tho he sat on the toilet like a girl until he was 6 or 7, rather than stand.

He is now almost 18 & is studying for A levels and holding down a part time job. We now have the problem of whether he will be able to drive

There is a very long thread on the Dyscovery Centre website about problems with toilet training and accidents in children with dyspraxia, I'm sure it must be related. I think it might be related to the problems with body awareness and maybe muscle tone. We haven't even begun toilet training Ds2 who is 3y10m. He never tells us if he has done a poo or wee and never wants to be changed. I keep putting it off but will have a try in the summer holidays.

Also on the Dyscovery Centre discussion board I remember reading that a few parents had tried their dyspraxic children with the piano with quite a bit of success, so it is definitely worth bearing in mind for the future, Aloha.

Tallulah, somebody posted a question on the Dyscovery Centre board about driving (it might have been you of course.) Amanda Kirby suggested learning in an automatic car.

We are lucky to have a big garden so bought a proper trampoline with a safety net which Ds2 absolutely loves. He can't jump but can run around on it and the physio said it is one of the few things that can actually improve muscle tone. When he first went on he couldn't stand up for more than a few seconds, now he can balance even if I jump next to him. It has really helped his balance and stability, I would really recommend it to anyone who has the space. And he is quite confident on bouncy castles, trampolines with other children etc - it is one of the few things where I don't feel he is left out.

Mum38, our SALT suggests the categories thing to us also. We are making a scrapbook of things in categories, animals, clothes etc. So far we have about 5 pages of animals (which Ds2 loves) all categorised into farm, zoo, sea etc. On the other hand, the page with clothes on has only 4 things on it and I think I had to stick all of them on myself .

Saker -the scrapbook idea sounds great -ds2 would love an animals section and maybe a starwars section but also have little interest in the clothes page

Trouble is if your Ds is like mine he probably has all the animals categorised in his head already anyway !

If you did want to do a scrapbook, I got lots of good animal pictures from here which is just a catalogue for toy animals but they look really nice and they are very clear and easy to see what they are.

Saker, whereabouts are you? we had a great occupational therapist who specialised in sensory integration in London last year - there were some truly impressive cahnges in ds whilst he had OT (he had about seven sessions over the summer holidays lasting about 45 minutes to an hour). If would like to know more or get her contact details, feel free to CAT me.

BTW, ds is now 6 years old and has been variously disagnosed as being on the autistic spectrum, having dyspraxia and having sensory integration disorder.

Thanks for the link Saker I think I will do this with him

sis, that sounds very similar to my ds (also aged 6). Who did you see in London? We live in London too - I would really like to find a good OT for him to see this summer.

My ds has a dx of dyspraxia (and s.i.d, and adhd and damp and lots of other dx at other times too - it is too confusing for words) - but he has no problems with sight - and in fact, he was freakily good at jigsaws from a very early age. He also really enjoyed trampolining, and it seemed to help him, and also playing the piano. I have also heard that horse riding is good for dyspraxic children.

Thanks for the offer Sis. We live in Cambridgeshire so London would be quite possible although a bit of journey. I'm not sure we would try to see another person immediately but I would like to know that it is an option especially for when he is a bit older so I will CAT you for the name if that is okay. Where did you get the name from originally - is there a register or anything?

Interesting about the piano . ds has been playing xylophones in music lessons and they did a little piece at a recent concert - he did as well as the others, memorising the sequence of notes, rhythm and coordinating his hand movements - I was amazed. A teacher we met at his new school asked whether he had learnt to touch type - is that something anyone else has come across ?

oh and I'd be interested in any recommendations for an OT - we'd be in East Surrey but could travel to London if need be during holidays.

LizS

It is worth looking at the Dyscovery centre chat board (my favourite place ). There is some discussions on their about touch typing programmes suitable for dyspraxic children. Many of them use an alphasmart I think.

Pollyanna, Cat me and I will let you have the details - the OT we saw was in central London but she lives in South London. If that is too far for you, it may be worth having a word with her to ask if she could recommend anyone nearer to were you live.

the OT was based in the same building that the paediatric nuerologist who gave ds his original assessment and diagnosis - and we went with the OT as we had no other recommendations!