Dyspraxia (childhood)

Dyspraxia refers to the disability of motor learning that may affect synchronization and mobility due to messages from the brain not being conveyed properly to the body. The phrase ‘motor learning disability’, better known as Clumsy Child syndrome, can be described as the condition when a person is unable to decide and systematize evenly directed movements. It is even known as motor learning difficulty and perceptuo-motor dysfunction, minimal brain dysfunction, motor learning difficulty and developmental co-ordination disorder (DCD).
Dyspraxia leads to awkwardness and causes issues relating to speech, awareness, thought and perception. It’s more common in boys and occurs in one out of every 20 children. Dyspraxia leaves the intelligence level of a child unaffected, disturbing his/her ability to grasp.

Symptoms

Some of the most common symptoms of Dyspraxia are listed below:
One initial sign of dyspraxia is that the child may not achieve his usual goals as expected to; for instance he may take a longer time to learn to turn over, crawl, sit, walk, stand, talk, get toilet trained, etc. Children may even miss out their crawling stage. It may get complicated to understand the child’s speech.
As they get a little older, the child may not be able to perform physical activities easily as compared to another child of the same age. He/she finds it hard to jump, skip, hop, run and kick or catch a ball.
A child may find it difficult to concentrate on a particular thing for more than a couple of minutes, and can even have issues while solving jigsaws, sorting shapes, building blocks, etc.
The child becomes restless, moving his hands and legs a lot, finding it very difficult to sit motionless.
Children falling over, bumping into and dropping things in extremes.
Discomfort in climbing up and down the stairs and complexity in getting dressed.
Making scribbled drawings and finding it uneasy to use a pair of scissors or different colour pens.
Lack of synchronization with others in events such as sports.
Messing up handwriting, uneasiness in buttoning up, disability in tying shoe laces, complicacy in using a spoon, fork and knife.
Difficulty in making up stories, poor observation, low span of attention.

Causes of Dyspraxia

Dyspraxia occurs when the formation of the nerve cells that control the body muscles remains incomplete. It is caused due to a limited maturity of neurone formation in the brain. Basically the brain takes longer than usual to convey messages to the rest of the body. Dyspraxia may even occur due to family heredity, but there has been no scientific reason given to explain the condition.

Diagnosis of Dyspraxia

In the case of Dyspraxia, earlier the condition is identified; larger are the chances of complete cure. Parent should visit various specialists required to meet the necessities to get rid of the condition. The health specialists inquire about the child’s developmental history, thinking capability and test the child’s fine and gross motor skills. Fine motor skills refer to activities that use small muscles to be performed, where as gross motor skills refer to activities that use large muscles to be performed.

Treatment

A child having dyspraxia tends to improve as he/she gets older. Treatment for the condition is available from several health specialists such as physiotherapists, speech and language therapists and occupational therapists. Help relating to different areas in provided in different ways.
A child can also be treated by the perceptual motor training, which involves motor, auditory, visual and language skills. A child may even be asked to do some exercises, which are tricky to a certain extent but do not end up irritating the child. Apart from this, extra help given at school may help the child to get rid of such extreme conditions.