26 Comments Add your own

• 1. Sue Salisbury  |  January 29th, 2007 at 2:03 pm

  Dawn,
  Thank you for you tick box assessment for Dysgraphia. We have down these tests and our son shows 17 out of the 35 signs.I did the dyslexia one and apart for m the writing section showed no other signs of dyslexia. Were do we go from here. I was thinking of contacting Dyslexia Qld. for help as we are in Brisbane. Do you have contacts in Qld. Iwould also like to purchase your book but don’t want to download it. Do you have it in print I can order and get it sent. Of all the sites on the net yours has been the ost helpful and hopefully there is light at athe end of the tunnel for Jack
  Thanks
  Sue Salisbury

• 2. Vicki White  |  September 12th, 2007 at 8:17 pm

  My 11 year old son was diagnosed with ADHD 3 years ago and is on a high dose of Ritalin which helps his behaviour during school hours, I beleive he has ADHD, but as time goes on I feel there is more to it. I had not heard of Dyspraxia until we commenced the DORE program, but what I have seen makes me think they are describing my child, is it possible for a child to have a combination of ADHD, dyspraxia and asperges? He seems to have symptoms of all 3? Is it worth putting him through more assessments and testing, or should I just find out as much as I can myself and provide all I can to support him through his journey of life? I would love to be able to take him off his medication, however his behaviour without it is so inappropriate , he is not destructive or naughty,just his thought processes take him way outside the normal boundaries of his peers he is considered “wierd” etc. I have just completed your tick assessment and he rated 26/35. Could you please send me some more information on what to do to help my son.
  Kind regards
  Vicki

• 3. carolyne drew  |  September 20th, 2007 at 2:27 am

  my 8 year old in grade 2 has prev been diagnosed adhd and was medicated..now he is unmedicated and has been on the DORE program for 9 months and the school psych says he is dyslexic..i am wondering if he is dyspraxic too. where can i go for help in perth wa

• 4. Julianne Molnar  |  October 15th, 2007 at 10:19 am

  My now 10 year old daughter was diagnosed with non-verbal dyspraxia at the age of 6 after being assessed. A recent assessment now says that she is intellectally disabled. My daughter is a very vibrant, happy child who absolutely loves school and tries her hardest with all she does. Her reading ability is improving all the time, her spelling needs help but she is quite good with phonetics her writing is neat but this takes time and effort (hence tiring). It is her maths that is the real concern. I would be interested to know if there are any computer programs that could help a child such as mine with learning difficulties. Also can you recommend tutoring help in Melbourne. Thank you

• 5. Liz  |  July 28th, 2008 at 10:43 am

  My son Ryan is 6yrs and 3 months. He is in year 1 in Qld. I have been called up to the school 5 times already and he has been seen by Qld health G.P, Physio and O.T. Ryan has low muscle tone that affects many areas and is struggling in the classroom and socially. He is also very big and tall for his age which bothers me in making the decision to repeat him. I completed your test for 3-7yr olds and ticked 19 boxes. What should I do know. If he has dyspraxia wouldn’t one of these specialists he has seen picked it up?

• 6. Dawn Matthews  |  July 28th, 2008 at 2:32 pm

  hi Liz
  did you complete the dyspraxia test or the dyslexia one? do both and get back to me. children are not necessarily picked up australia as assessment seems sometimes to be very muddled. if you think he’s dyspraxic then an occupational therapist is who you want. dyspraxia can be helped a great deal at this age if you do all the correct exercises etc. i talk a lot about this in my guide on dyspraxia.

  dyspraxia is a perception problem and these kids have spatial problems which can be sorted with the right treatment early enough. s
  o the bok will help you but push your doctor for a full occupational therapy test.
  cheers
  dawn

• 7. helen lee  |  August 25th, 2008 at 9:04 pm

  hi just found this site i have a 12 year old who was diagnosed with verbal dyspraxia at 18 mnths old and also motor dyspraxia [think i got that right] at the same time its been a long hard slog then we also found out he has ADHD also he is medicated for that he goes to a special school as he couldnt cope with the bullies in mainstream ,been very good for him he hates change have to set everything out for him and tell him in advance what were doing,going back to the school thing he has had trouble with one child through the school he goes to now this other child is touching my son and just keeps following my son everywhere he goes ive been to the school phoned them etc…. nothing is working and my son comes home so sos angry and i cant do anything with him then when he cant take anymore he just explodes PLEASE HELP he will be going bck to school in 2 weeks.helen

• 8. Julie Canning  |  September 7th, 2008 at 2:47 am

  My daughter who has just turned 6 suffers from hypermobility and stuggles at school with her work and every day life. I have done the tick list you provided and i ticked about 18-20 as on some of them she only finds certan things abit difficult. Would i have to go to my own doctor to get referred to a specialist on this matter to see if she suffers from dyspraxia? We have been to the hospital last year but only saw a child development doctor.
  I would be gratful for any help on this matter
  Regards
  Julie Canning

• 9. Mary Anne  |  September 30th, 2008 at 9:06 pm

  I’m wondering if you have a list of OT’s specialising in dyspraxia. My 11 yo saw an OT earlier and she recommended that we continue making him work on handwriting at home but not spend money seeing her weekly. A learning behaviour specialist has since recommended that ‘bypass strategies’ be employed like laptops, etc. I still feel some OT would benefit him in getting his brain working, etc. Not surprisingly, he avoids all sports but swimming. He is doing well at SPELD in Melbourne and performs best one on one but they are helping him grasp concepts in Math and work on spelling. I’m interested to know if people have experienced success with the DORE program, which we also considered. I hate taking him to specialist after specialist and have generally stopped everything but the SPELD because he once said to me, “I don’t want to go to see someone else. I like the way I am. Why do you want to change me?” I don’t want to continually focus on his challenges but I want to help him reach his potential as much as possible. Am already worrying about high schools. Any advice would be appreciated.

• 10. maria roberts  |  October 7th, 2008 at 3:10 am

  I think my daugher is dyspraxic but dont know where to get her tested or who i go and see for help do i take her to the doctors if anyone can help i would be very happy.

• 11. Dawn Matthews  |  October 8th, 2008 at 3:46 pm

  I’m wondering if you have a list of OT’s specialising in dyspraxia. My 11 yo saw an OT earlier and she recommended that we continue making him work on handwriting at home but not spend money seeing her weekly. A learning behaviour specialist has since recommended that ‘bypass strategies’ be employed like laptops, etc. I still feel some OT would benefit him in getting his brain working, etc. Not surprisingly, he avoids all sports but swimming. He is doing well at SPELD in Melbourne and performs best one on one but they are helping him grasp concepts in Math and work on spelling. I’m interested to know if people have experienced success with the DORE program, which we also considered. I hate taking him to specialist after specialist and have generally stopped everything but the SPELD because he once said to me, “I don’t want to go to see someone else. I like the way I am. Why do you want to change me?” I don’t want to continually focus on his challenges but I want to help him reach his potential as much as possible. Am already worrying about high schools. Any advice would be appreciated.

  thanks for emailing. i have tried very hard to get lists of people who can help but so far very few people have come forward with information. the Dore program is designed for dyspraxics. i thought that they had gone under though.

  it is very important to give him tasks that improve his hand eye brain communication. if you do enough of this early enough he can be almost completely cured. i have done this myself with many dyspraxic kids. however a lot of what you can do is very simple and easy and described in my book dyspraxia – a guide for parents and teachers. i do not as yet have hard copies but you can buy it downloadable.

  yes i agree i would always teach a dyspraxic kid work processing skills rather than hand writing.

  the other very important thing is to get him to totally understand is time. i talk about this in the book also.

  get back to me with more specifics if you want.
  cheers
  dawn

• 12. peter purcell  |  November 4th, 2008 at 8:36 am

  i tried using the test but it did not seem to come up can you please let me know some ways of helping my son with verbal dyspraxia.
  i would really appriciate the help
  thank you before hand
  yours sincerly
  peter

• 13. Lisa Catanzariti  |  February 3rd, 2009 at 11:13 am

  Hi my name is Lisa. I have a 15 year old daughter Sarah who has verbal dyspraxia and is intellectually disabled. She has always attended a special school. She has always had occupational and speech theraphy up until a couple of years ago. Im a bit lost with her at the moment. I want her to have some sort of therapy or tutoring at home but I don’t know where to turn. We stopped speech therapy a couple of years ago because Sarah was becoming very defiant and unco-operative. Shes a little bit older now and I think she might be a little more co-operative with some sort of therapy. Speech therapists are hard to get onto. I did see my old speech therapist late last year and she wasn’t that helpful. Sarah has braces on at the moment and my speech therapist told me not to do anything until she gets her braces off. I would like some home tutoring of some sort so if you know of anyone that could help me please let me know. I live in Melbourne. Thank you and look forward to hearing from someone.

• 14. Audrey Currie  |  April 11th, 2009 at 8:23 pm

  My 8 year old daughter has VCFS, she recently under went surgery to repair her soft palate. This has helped a little with the clarity of her speech, however she still struggles greatly with both oral and verbal dyspraxia. She has been attending speech therapy since 4 and more recently a tutor for one on one help with comprehension and language skills for school. It appears that she does not suffer from motor dyspraxia, as both her gross and fine motor skills are great. She both crawled and walked at age appropriate times, she also learnt to ride a tri-cycle and bicycle at a younger age than most of her peers.

  Do you have any suggestions or exercises that might help her dyspraxia. It just breaks my heart when she asks me “why don’t I speak the same” and “I try hard mum”!

• 15. Kim  |  May 21st, 2009 at 3:58 pm

  Hi Dawn, I have clicked on the ‘download adobe link’ and it was installed successfully. I am trying to do the tick test for the 3-7yos (as I am certain that my daughter suffers from dyspraxia). For some unknown reason, when I click on the 3-7yo link, I receive a message “the webpage cannot be found”. Has the webpage been moved by chance ? Could you possibly send me a document separately so I can do the check ? I await your reply. ThankU Kim

• 16. Admin  |  May 21st, 2009 at 4:05 pm

  Hi Kim
  Please try refreshing the page as I have just tested all 3 links.

  Thanks ever so much

• 17. Lizzi  |  July 15th, 2009 at 7:43 pm

  Hi,

  I’m an adult and have suspected for a little while I’m dyspraxic. Just did the dyspraxia test and scored 31 out of 35 – suspect I could be right! I live in the UK, but am just wondering what the best thing to do from here is?

• 18. Meeta Ramesh  |  July 24th, 2009 at 12:56 pm

  Hi,

  My son has a diagnosis of PDD-NOS, but his symptoms are very much like Dyspraxia. I have looked at the tick box test and most of the situations are applicable to my son. He is 12 years old. I am writing to you to find out how I can get him properly diagnosed and to find out what treatments are available for his condition.

  I hope you can assist and look forward to hearing from you.

  Kind regards,
  Meeta

• 19. Hannah  |  July 28th, 2009 at 12:30 am

  Hi there,

  I have a six and a half year old daughter with a yet undiagosed developmental disability incorporating a seizure disorder, extremely low muscle tone, hyper-mobility and she is also the height and weight of a 12-14 year old. Her IQ was 78 at age four and a half, to be on the severe disability register it must be 75 or below so she misses out on funding in school and is slowly regressing. Some professionals mentioned dispraxia and after checking your survey she has ticked 29/35 boxes. What does this mean for her and where do I go from here?

  Thanks Hannah

• 20. matthew  |  September 16th, 2009 at 4:40 pm

  hi miss gander do i be good at school

• 21. Antonia Canaris  |  February 2nd, 2010 at 12:00 am

  I have just learned about a dyspraxia workshop that is being held at Coff’s harbour and Brisbane in April. It is on education and dyspraxia. for Further information contact the Australian Dyspraxia Association (ADA) at

  info@dyspraxia.com.au

  I hope that this will be helpful information

• 22. Lynette Sayers  |  February 12th, 2010 at 8:11 am

  Please be aware that the Australian Dyspraxia Association Inc (ADA) correct contact is
  information@dyspraxia.com.au
  So good of Antonia to inform all.

• 23. Kaitlin Patane  |  February 20th, 2010 at 3:58 pm

  I got 26 out of 35, I seriously think i have it, Now what do i do…Do i get a diagnosis? Will it Help? And how do i get a diagnoses?

• 24. tracey  |  March 11th, 2010 at 2:27 am

  I was informed at my 6yr old son’s parents evening that he needs a lot of one to one,has difficulty concentrating and can not hold a pen properly amongst other things.I have always thought that my son was different to other children.He has a half brother who was diagnosed with Dyspraxia at an early age,I see alot of similarities.I have just done the test for 3-7 yr old and my son scored 26.I live in Wales in the UK and have no idea how to get him tested/diagnosed any advice you could give me would be gratefully appreciated

• 25. Nicole pearson  |  March 18th, 2010 at 12:18 pm

  Hi,
  I just did the test and my 5 year old who scored 33. I thought she may have been dyslexic and is on a waiting list to be diognosed by a pediatrian. Maybe she has Dyspraxia or both? I am confused!!
  Nicki.

• 26. Amber  |  March 22nd, 2010 at 6:23 am

  I took this myself instead of my mother taking it nd got 23 out of a possible 35. I also tend to have problems with making food for myself or making a cup of tea for my parents. I sometimes have problems washing my hair and until about 2 years ago, I could’nt work a shower. I’m 13 and my sister is 11 and she can do all that stuff and she sometimes looks down on me. However, I am extremely good at Maths and have good handwriting but at school I’m unreliable for handing in homework. My parents have never thought I would be dyspraxic so I will have to tell them that I may be slightly.

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