Dyspraxia or also known as developmental coordination disorder (DCD), is a condition that affects physical coordination and the ability to process motor tasks. If your child has dyspraxia, it could cause them to not perform as well as you’d expect in day-to-day activities for their age. They may also seem to move clumsily. It can also affect their handwriting and fine motor skills, and pose difficulties with the development of their language skills.
Children with dyspraxia have issues with things like:
- Coordination
- Movement
- Processing
- Judgment
- Cognitive skills
- Memory
Dyspraxia also impacts your body’s nervous and immune system. Your child may have problems with language and to some degree, difficulty with perception and thought. While this condition doesn’t affect your child’s intelligence, it could lead to learning problems.
Dyspraxia signs and symptoms in your child may include:
- Troubles with fine motor skills that affect playing with puzzles and blocks, writing and artwork
- Unusual posture
- Messy eating and drinking
- Coordination issues, making it hard to skip, hop, catch a ball or jump
- Temper tantrums
- Hand flapping, being easily excitable or fidgeting
- Becoming less fit physically because of physical activity avoidance
While your child’s intelligence won’t be affected, dyspraxia could make it more difficult for them to socialize and learn due to:
- A lack of organizational skills
- A short attention span for difficult tasks
- Low self-esteem
- Troubles learning new skills
- Troubles making friends
- Immature behavior
- Troubles remembering or following instructions
If your child is struggling with dyspraxia and it’s affecting their motor skills, there are numerous ways you can help. Begin by working with their school and getting them into pediatric occupational therapy. These specialists are a great starting point and should be able to help them best and teach you ways to help at home as well.