could this be dyspaxia???

[rummum]

Help

My 9 year old daughter had an ABC assesment done today at our local Child Development Unit by a pediatrition. This was apparently done to see if she needed to see an Occupational Therapist.. she scored 15% on the catching/balance test and only 5% on her fine motor skills test, she would only get refered if she got 1% or under... so basicaly anyone has to really struggle/fail before they get any help.. obviously she didn't fail enough.

The school have told me for years that daughter struggles,
daughter has trouble:
following a list of instructions
concentrating
forgets thing learnt from one week to the next
can't copy from the board
over a year behind with her spellings
no mental maths ability
no organisation skills,
these werent'all said in the same day.. I hasten to add!
Daughter also has no tripod grip and this causes her arm to ache whilst writing.. she does use an alpha smart now and is learning to touch type.

Daughter has trouble standing for a long period of time.. her legs ache.. The doctor today said
she had Lax Muscles and may grow out of it!..
Daughter dribbles (wee's) daily and the doctor told her to go to the toilet more often!

There are loads more things I could add.

Could she have dyspraxia or dyspraxic tendences?

What do I do now... The doctor is going to write to let me know her recomendations... but she didn't touch the problems that daughter has in the classroom..

maybe I have munchausen by proxy and need my head examined, maybe all 9 year olds have these problems.

Thanks if you've read this far

Rummum

I didn't see this as I was on holiday when you posted. My Ds2 has a lot of dyspraxic symptons although he does not have a diagnosis and he has language problems in addition to (or because of?) his dyspraxic tendencies.

It doesn't sound to me like you need your head examined - it sounds like she could have dyspraxia.
If you can afford to you could get your daughter assessed privately. I would recommend the Dyscovery Centre although it would mean travelling to Cardiff. Their website has a lot of useful information on it either way. I would also recommend "Dyspraxia the hidden handicap" which is a book by Amanda Kirby who runs the Dyscovery Centre.

Hello, I'm now back from my holidays... Thanks for replying everyone..

I received a letter from the pediatritian saying that she has changed her mind and she is now going to refer daughter to a OT as she has a 'big discrepency between her manual dexterity and her other skills,but thats if they agree to see her as she doesn't meet all the criteria'
Does an OT diagnose dyspraxia? she is also going to send daughter to the hospital to get some insoles for her shoes to help her aching legs.

In answer to a few questions, daughter met all her milestones on time but was observed at her 3 and a half year check (make that nearly 4) as she couldn't...
do a jigsaw puzzle
have a tripod grip.. in fact she didn't know which hand to hold the pencil in,
know her address... in fact she didn't speak very clearly at all and was refered to speach therapy,
and had trouble copying this pattern thing with the blocks... She only seems to have trouble with her fine motor skills, not so much her gross motor skills.
Unfortunately we are not in a position to pay privately for daughter to be assessed, and I'm not sure that the school would recognise some outsiders diagnosis...

We went for tea tonight at a friends house and daughter knocked her drink over... dropped her food every where and needed help cutting it up...It made me realise the difference between daughter and the other children there, so I will be pursuing her problems...

Thanks everyone for replying, its nice to know I'm not going crazy.. its just now and then when people doubt my judgement, I doubt it too..