Posts filed under 'Dyspraxia'
MY GRANDDAUGHTER IS ELEVEN SHE HAS LEFT SCHOOL TO ATTEND A LEARNING CENTER AS SHE COULD NOT COPE AT CLASS WITH READING AND WRITING. SHE IS NOW TAKING ONE TO ONE SCHOOLING ON MOTOR SKILLS AND ALL SPORTS SUCH AS SWIMMING , ATHLETICS. THE PROBLEM IS STILL WITH US, SHE STILL CAN NOT TALK PROPERLY , OR READ OR WRITE. WITH THIS EXTRA HELP SHE IS GETTING, CAN SHE AT ONE TIME IN THE FUTURE BE ABLE TO OVERCOME THESE DIFFICULITIES, ARE THERE EXTRA EXCERCISES AND PHONETICS SHE SHOULD BE TAKING CAN WE AT HOME DO SOMETHING EXTRA. IS MEDITATION OF ANY HELP
Hi,
Yes dysraxia is mostly curable in regards to education as long as you get the correct help. Please read my book on it and do all the hand eye coordination things and wobble board. Teach through phonics and muti sensory, as described in my book “Dyslexia – How to Win” and the phonics program and use actual tactile objects like letter shapes, and sand trays. Evidence has definitely found that Omega three oils help, but quite a high dose is needed. you might approach a Naturopath on this. Ritalin does not help at all with dyspraxia. If you live in Australia i might be able to put you in contact with someone who could help.
Hope this was helpful
Dawn
February 11th, 2009
I am very concerned about my 8 year old son. He is very bright however has very poor handwriting., which is bringing his marks down. Please help
HI,
You have to know why his handwriting is poor, he could have Motor problems, be dyspraxic or dyslexic or Asperges Syndrome, if you want to help it. There are tick tests for some of these on my site and a check list for others. However if this is the only problem then teach him word processing skills and put him on a computer. Handwriting is not actually needed nowadays except at school. hey do very little of it in Bill Gates Schools.
cheers
dawn
February 11th, 2009
I’m certain I have dyspraxia. A few years ago, my mum was reading an article about a dyspraxic child in the local paper. After reading, she handed me the papaer and said “This is exactly what you were like as a child.” I took your tick test and I ticked at least 30 boxes. I’m sure if I went over it again with someone close to me, I would btick a couple more. A couple of my symptoms wer highlighted by other people. For example, my sister and family kept telling me that I talk to loud and too much and sometimes say the wrong thing; my friend told me that I walk with no natural rhythm. I’m sure there’s more that I don’t know about. I went to the doctor a couple of months ago about a possible diagnosis, I mentioned some of my symptoms and he told me he would try adn find someone to refer me to. I still haven’t heard anything, so either he hasn’t taken me seriously (that’s happened before, with a different doctor) or there’s no-one in this area who can help me. PLease help me. I need an answer to why I’m different. I know I am, I know I’m not an idiot. Sometimes I feel inadequate, incompetent, worthless nd useless. I don’t know what else I can do. If I can get a diagnosis I will be able to get help and some understanding at work. I’m a waitress at a pie shop and sometimes I can’t quite get all the tasks done before closing time. My supervisor keeps asking me why I can’t do things everyone else can do, and I just say “I don’t know”. I don’t want to say “I’m dyspraxic” in case the doctor tells me I don’t have it and I’m just making things up.
Thanks for your email,
If you can tick most of the boxes then it is pretty certain that you’re dyspraxic. You need to see an occupational therapist for a complete diagnosis. So ask your doctor for a referral to one. It is thought that the cause of dyspraxia is something trauma that happens in a very narrow window 6 weeks either side of birth. If your mother can recall that happening then its very lightly that you are.
In my book on dyspraxia, which can only be bought downloadable, sorry but only costs $9 i think, i talk at length about why dyspraxics are how they are and what causes it etc. Also there are lots of suggestions for treating it, and although they usually work with children there is plenty of evidence that simple crawling, balancing and throwing etc activities also work with dyspraxic adults. So you should be doing these things with your mother.
Hope all goes well. cheers
dawn
January 20th, 2009
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Teach them to totally understand time.
Because these kids do not always perceive properly, time is not a constant for them and one minute can actually “be” a lot shorter than another. They have to know the length of a minute and an hour. So time things, count in seconds, watch a second hand go round the clock and keep doing these until the child can predict when a minute, 5 mins, and hour etc finishes. Dyspraxic adults can end up in permanent day care because they are unable to understand time properly and sort out their days by themselves.
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Keep a diary of what the child needs and has to do every day at school and prepare the day before.
Teachers and parents should check that the kid has correctly entered details in this diary as these kids are not always totally aware of what has been going on and this is not their fault.
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Time how long tasks take and always leave more time than this to do a task.
These kids panic because they do not believe they can complete something on time or because they try to complete a task in insufficient time. When these kids panic they can get into a real state very quickly so you have to do anything you can to prevent this from happening.
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Do lots of activities involving hand eye and body coordination.
These should include catching and throwing, kicking, crawling through obstacle courses, climbing, standing on wobble boards (see Dsypraxia a guide for parents and teachers), walking on planks while holding objects and sporting activities. This helps correct the perception problems and the neural pathways in the brain, and the kid will then do better academically and socially.
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Try to keep routines and order constant from day to day.
When you have perception problems the world becomes scary if it keeps changing. These kids take some time to learn the routines and learn that they work. If this changes then they get scared that time will run out or things will get forgotten. If you have to change routine then try to do in consultation with the kid.
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Try to keep the contents of their world in the same place.
These kids take a long time to learn where their world and its contents are in space and how they relate to these. When these things move then they get scared because they may not notice and run into them or just not cope with the change. If you have to move items or his/her desk, bed, or toys etc. do it in consultation with the kid.
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Neither Developmental Motor Dyspraxia nor Verbal Dyspraxia can be cured or overcome by giving the child amphetamines.
Please do not give these kids drugs.
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Help them establish friends, prevent bullying and cope socially through role-play.
Because of their perception problems these kids miss some information, reactions and body language. This makes it hard for them to “read” people and situations well. Also they often seem clumsy and awkward and this attracts bullies. They have to be prepared for situations and learn by acting situations out in advance. This is specially needed to cope with bullies.
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Teach in a tactile multi sensory way.
You have to involve as much of the brain, attention and thinking as possible in a teaching situation. If you merely tell them something then they might not “hear” all of the words, but if you tell them, show them and encourage them to do it all at the same time, then they are much less lightly to miss information – as are all kids.
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Work with their strengths.
These kids are creative, sensitive and very caring. They spend a lot of time living in their own heads and inventing and creating things. They also learn to develop their own ways of doing things. These ideas should be encouraged and used. It is far too easy to spend most of a child’s time catching up with and focusing on his/her weaknesses.
For more information and help please read “Dyspraxia – a Guide for Parents and Teachers” by Dawn Matthews
July 16th, 2008
Spencer has been showing more signs of motor dyspraxia as well. Last year is when we really started to notice it. For example: he couldn’t tie his shoe laces tight enough to remain tied, he couldn’t button or snap his jeans, his handwriting was poor and he would complain of his hand hurting, etc. We had him in OT for about 3 months and all of these were fixed or had improved enough for our insurance company to say that his problems didn’t warrant any more therapy. He hasn’t had any OT since July and so far he’s doing fine. I haven’t seen any regression anyway.
We had him evaluated through the school system last year to see if he would qualify for any type of help from them and he didn’t. He definitely has problems staying focused and attending to his tasks, but he doesn’t have ADD or ADHD. His IQ is average to above average in most areas and even superior in a couple. His speech is intelligible enough so they won’t work with him on that and in order for a child to receive OT through the school they first have to have a primary problem (like speech) !!
Continue Reading September 28th, 2007
I have created a set of three tick box tests to help you identify whether your child or pupil is dyspraxic. They are divided from each other by age.
Continue Reading January 24th, 2007
Not every child who is late learning to talk or understand language has verbal dyspraxia. In fact very few have. Verbal dyspraxia is a very specific learning disability and I have found that most also have Developmental Motor Dyspraxia.
Continue Reading December 19th, 2006
Far too often, when trying to describe dyspraxia, the simplicity of the learning disorder gets lost in a cloud of scientific words and labels, in the same way as it can with dyslexia. I will try to keep everything very simple.
Dyspraxia is generally broken down into two types, Developmental Motor Dyspraxia (DMD) and Verbal Dyspraxia
Continue Reading December 18th, 2006
Last week I had (yet another) mother phone me because her child had been diagnosed as having “Dysgraphia”.
“Can you help my child?” she asked. I’m used to this now and I always say, “first I would have to assess the child to establish what causes his problems”.
“He’s got Dysgraphia she repeated.” And she had every right to expect that this was a good and useful diagnosis, after all she had paid over $300 for it.
But in fact labelling a child as “dysgraphic” is not a useful diagnosis because it tells us nothing about how that child learns or how best to teach that child.
Continue Reading December 17th, 2006
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