What is Dyspraxia? Use the Dyspraxia Test for Your Child to Know

Dyspraxia, dyslexia, ADHD, sensory processing disorders, autism spectrum disorder, Asperger’s.

It seems that with so much new research and media attention shedding new light on learning disabilities and developmental challenges affecting our children, we might be getting a bit overwhelmed!

You see, the field of early childhood development is experiencing a renaissance.

While the plethora of information coming at us from celebrity spokespeople, new scientific research, and the Internet’s current Data Revolution is great for our understanding of early childhood development, it also makes it difficult for parents to take it all in.

A little-known condition

For some children, though, problems with coordination and learning difficulties in school might actually lie with a little-known condition called dyspraxia.

Unfortunately, the problems associated with dyspraxia are often jumbled in with broader definitions of learning disabilities. Therefore, many people with it are never diagnosed.

Without help, they deal with learning difficulties, speech problems, or motor coordination issues for their whole lives.

Although dyspraxia isn’t making as many headlines as others like dyslexia, ADD, ADHD and autism spectrum disorder, it is a fairly common condition among children. 

Researchers believe that anywhere from 6-10 percent of children today show some of the signs of dyspraxia. Plus, it’s a condition that often overlaps or goes hand-in-hand with ADHD.

The good news is that there are many relatively-simple exercises that can improve coordination, balance, speech, and daily tasks that are otherwise affected by having dyspraxia.

What is Dyspraxia?

It is difficult to generally define dyspraxia. But it is a condition that affects a person’s ability to coordinate movement or speech. It can also be referred to as developmental coordination disorder.

Here’s an example:

When the everyday person wants to write something, their brain sends a fast series of signals to their body: move hand, grip pencil, adjust to writing grip, move hand to paper, move fingers and wrist in the right series of lines and circles to make letters, etc.

There are hundreds of signals sent back and forth between your brain, nervous system, muscles and back again for every single movement we make. But we don’t usually think about it step-by-step.

A person with dyspraxia has a lag in that movement preparation process. There are hiccups in the neurological process. It might be that they take longer to get the signals from the brain to the body.

Or, it might be that their reaction time is slow. Maybe it is that the coordination of the messages is slightly out of synch, which makes their physical movement equally out of synch.

Motor Dyspraxia vs. Verbal Dyspraxia

Doctors and occupational therapists tend to categorize two overarching types of dyspraxia in children: motor dyspraxia or verbal dyspraxia.

With motor dyspraxia, gross or fine motor skills are affected. For example, a person might struggle with balance so severely that it affects their walking or jumping. Or, it could be something smaller, like writing or buttoning clothes.

With verbal dyspraxia, the tongue is affected, and therefore a person’s speech might slur or stutter.

The symptoms don’t just end with the physical manifestations of dyspraxia, meaning it can affect social skills too. Children with dyspraxia may behave immaturely in social situations and might come across as a slow learner, even though they typically have average to above-average intelligence.

Dyspraxia Test for Symptoms

Here are a few signs of dyspraxia at various ages that might help you determine whether or not you should talk to your pediatrician about a potential diagnosis:

18 months to 3 years old

• Difficulty manipulating a fork and spoon to eat
• Cannot kick a ball
• Toilet training delays
• Cannot stack blocks
• Cannot complete simple 2-5 piece puzzles
• Not speaking more than a few words by 3 years old, or sentences are incomprehensible

3-5 years old

• Clumsy, bumps into things often
• Cannot jump or skip
• Does not show right or left hand dominance
• Cannot hold items without dropping them
• Cannot grasp a pencil to draw
• Fumbles with buttons and zippers
• Speaks very slowly
• Speech is slurred

6-12 year olds

• Cannot kick or throw a ball
• Has poor hand-eye coordination
• Struggles with sports
• Has trouble with balance
• Can’t stand or sit in one place for very long without getting tired
• Has difficulty writing
• Cannot grasp small items, like moving pieces on a game board

Teenagers

• Still can’t ride a bicycle
• Stumbles often when walking
• Seems clumsy and bumps into things
• Has “immature” reactions or responses in social situations
• Seem disoriented, gets lost even in commonly-visited places
• Doesn’t speak much, or when he/she does, it is slurred or slow
• Often speaks too loudly or too softly
• Fumbles with unlocking doors and holding keys

Dyspraxia Diagnosis

If you suspect your child might be dealing with dyspraxia, the first place to go is your pediatrician or general practitioner. However, a GP alone isn’t likely to give your child a dyspraxia diagnosis.

They’ll evaluate his general motor planning abilities, and if they see any signs, they’ll refer to a team of other experts. Together, a physiotherapist, occupational therapist and speech and language therapist will assess your child.

Even though there’s no specific “dyspraxia test,” the diagnosis process will likely help you to isolate the specific form of dyspraxia your child is dealing with:

• Ideomotor dyspraxia

  which makes it hard to imitate single-step motor tasks or complete them upon instruction. Examples: waving hello/goodbye upon instruction is difficult, though doing it spontaneously upon entering a room is fine.

• Ideational dyspraxia

  which makes sequences of movements difficult – not because of loss of movement or strength, but because of a confusion in reasoning behind the movement. Examples: Using a tool like a hairbrush improperly, like upside down or backwards. The hands can make the correct movement when shown how, but when trying to coordinate the movement themselves, children often seem to “miss the point” of how to use the hairbrush at first glance.

• Oromotor dyspraxia

  verbal apraxia or apraxia of speech, which makes enunciation difficult.

• Constructional dyspraxia

  which makes it harder to understand spatial relationships. Examples: inability to copy drawings or construct an example from blocks.

What to do if Your Child Has Been Diagnosed With Dyspraxia

Even though there is no cure-all treatment for children with dyspraxia, research and experience are showing that early intervention can make a huge difference in the quality of life for an affected child.

Occupational therapists who specialize in pediatric development are a great source of help to families. There are many physical exercises that they can do together each week to develop their coordination, balance, and muscle tone for gross and fine motor skills.

Speech therapists specialize in strengthening speech problems and helping children enunciate better and strengthen their mouth coordination.

Pediatric psychologists are key in helping children with any developmental difficulties, like dyspraxia, adjust appropriately to their ever-changing world socially and behaviorally. 

Many times, they are a great mediator between children and parents to navigate the social difficulties associated with dyspraxia, sensory processing disorder, ADHD or ASD.