Understanding Dyspraxia
Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD), also known as Dyspraxia in the UK, is a common disorder affecting gross motor coordination (controlling large body movements that involve large muscle groups, including core stability and posture e.g. pushing, pulling, rolling, crawling, walking and sitting still) and fine motor coordination (physical skills that involve small muscles and hand-eye coordination e.g. using a pen or scissors, or picking up and manipulating small objects.)
The word Dyspraxia comes from the Greek dys meaning difficulty and praxis meaning doing. Children with Dyspraxia often experience difficulties initiating or performing everyday tasks requiring coordination, such as getting dressed, telling the time, catching a ball, writing and swimming.
Dyspraxia is a formally recognised condition which is distinct from other motor disorders such as cerebral palsy and stroke. Dyspraxia does not affect cognitive ability, which is in line with that of the general population, although it can impact an individual’s access to learning. Individuals may vary in how their difficulties present; these may change over time depending on environmental demands and life experience, and will persist into adulthood. An individual’s coordination difficulties may affect participation and functioning of everyday life skills in education, work and employment. Children may present with difficulties with self-care, writing, typing, riding a bike, play as well as other educational and recreational activities. In adulthood many of these difficulties will continue, as well as learning new skills at home, in education and work, such as driving a car and DIY. A range of co-occurring difficulties can also have implications for daily life, including problems with time management, planning and organisation and these may impact an adult’s education or employment experiences.
Verbal dyspraxia refers to children who struggle to produce sounds, syllables and words, which is caused by physical co-ordination difficulties relating to the tongue, lips and jaw. This can be assessed and supported by a speech and language therapist.
What might dyspraxia look like in the classroom?
Teachers might notice that children and young people with dyspraxia:
Have difficulty with dressing and getting changed for PE, e.g. fastenings, tying shoe laces, dressing quickly;
Have difficulties with organisation;
Seem to trip over or bump into things regularly;
Have difficulty remembering left and right;
Have difficulty with gross motor activities, e.g. running, jumping, hopping etc.;
Find it hard to read due to losing their place or skipping words;
Struggle with the process of writing, such as erratic or illegible handwriting, putting too much pressure on the page and poor spacing between words;
Find it hard to concentrate and maintain attention;
Have difficulties sitting still and so might appear to be fidgety.
Strategies teachers can use to support children and young people with dyspraxia include:
Ensuring that the student’s pen and pencil grip is comfortable;
Allowing them extra time to complete tasks;
Reducing the number of verbal or visual instructions they are given at one time;
Giving step-by-step instructions and checking in regularly that they are understood;
If necessary, placing simple written/printed instructions on the student’s desk;
Sitting the child or young person at the front, near the board;
Using checklists and story planners to support independent writing;
Allowing access to approrpiate computer technology;
Use lined paper with margins for writing, and squared paper in Maths;
Demonstrating new skills in PE before inviting the child or young person to attempt it;
Allowing the student more time to get changed for PE than their peers.
Further Information
The UK umbrella organisation representing the major national groups concerned with children and adults with dyspraxia is called ‘Movement Matters’. Their website can be found here.
