Dyspraxia: what is it, how to recognize it and treat it?

Developmental dyspraxia is a motor planning disorder that can affect almost every area of ​​a child's life. Dyspraxia may affect speech and movement, resulting in clumsiness and carelessness child, contributing to school and motor difficulties. What is dyspraxia, what are the symptoms? 

How is dyspraxia diagnosed? Is there any test to detect this disorder? Can dyspraxia be cured, what exercises should you do with your child? We invite you to read the article.

What is dyspraxia?, what is it? 

Although information about developmental dyspraxia is highly sought after by parents on the Internet, it is worth knowing that the term itself is dyspraxia is not a medical term.

According to the ICD-10 classification of diseases in force in Poland, dyspraxia is a "specific disorder of the development of motor functions" (F82). In turn, according to the American classification (DSM-5), developmental dyspraxia is defined as "developmental coordination disorder" (DCD).

In order to better describe to parents the topic of developmental dyspraxia, motor dyspraxia or speech dyspraxia, for the purposes of this article we will use the term dyspraxia, with reference to specific disorders of motor functions (F82).

Developmental dyspraxia is often also described as the clumsy child syndrome (Clumsy Child Syndrome) and this term quite accurately illustrates how children with this disorder are perceived.

What is developmental dyspraxia, what are the causes of this disorder?

Dyspraxia is a disorder of motor planning skills (praxia), which for most people is an almost involuntary process that does not require much effort, e.g. setting a table or hitting a ball.

Children with developmental dyspraxia have great difficulties in planning sequential tasks, they cannot combine an action plan (at the thought level) with its implementation (at the motor level). Dyspraxia mainly affects movement: 

• gross motor skills;
• fine motor skills,
• but we also distinguish speech dyspraxia, the so-called oral dyspraxia.

When we wonder what dyspraxia is, we should mention the problems accompanying this disorder, including: proprioception (deep feeling), motor coordination, balance and concentration of attention. What is dyspraxia and what is it caused by?

Praxial disorders may be congenital or acquired (e.g. as a result of an accident and health consequences). So far, the cause of developmental dyspraxia has not been clearly determined. Children suffering from this disorder have been shown to, among others: disturbances of integration and synaptic conduction between many areas of the central nervous system (at the level of subcortical structures).

To diagnose this neurodevelopmental disorder, you need to: exclude many diseases including: hearing and vision disorders, cerebral palsy, intellectual disability, elastopathy, other genetic diseases, attention disorders and others.

What are the symptoms of developmental dyspraxia, What should parents and teachers pay attention to?

Now that we know what dyspraxia is, let's dive in symptoms of this disorder. As we have already mentioned, children with developmental dyspraxia may be perceived by those around them as lazy, clumsy and forgetful.

Common symptoms of motor dyspraxia include:

• significant delays in achieving subsequent development milestones;
• difficulty grasping and manipulating objects;
• impaired motor coordination, frequent falls, accidental knocks and dropping objects;
• problems during art work and self-care activities: difficulties with cutting or coloring, problems with fastening buttons, lacing shoes, dressing and undressing, etc.;
• attention disorders;
• motor difficulties during games and physical activities;
• at school, symptoms of developmental dyspraxia include: "ugly" handwriting, difficulties in reading and understanding, losing things, lack of ability to organize one's own work.

Symptoms of dyspraxia cause frustration and shame in children, which may be expressed through various disturbing behaviors, such as withdrawing into oneself, showing off in a group, or as verbal/physical aggression. Motor dyspraxia and speech dyspraxia may lower self-esteem and often worsen relationships with peers.

Jak reveals himself speech dyspraxia, or oral dyspraxia?

speech dyspraxia, the so-called oral dyspraxia is also associated with a disorder of motor planning, which in this case concerns, among others, movements of the tongue, lips and facial muscles, which need to be connected with the thought process of the utterance.

Symptoms of speech dyspraxia include:

• difficulty producing and imitating sounds;
• delay in saying the first words, and then a limited vocabulary;
• difficulty building sentences.

In speech dyspraxia, children often speak unclearly and quietly, in a chaotic and incoherent manner, which translates into difficulties during kindergarten and school activitiesand also on communication and relationships with peers. 

Diagnostics developmental dyspraxia: tests and research should be carried out by specialists from various fields

Due to the very wide range of symptoms of dyspraxia, diagnosis is quite difficult and requires the cooperation of many specialists. When we are concerned about a child's psychomotor development, first of all we should consult, among others: with a pediatrician and a neurologist.

After getting acquainted with information about the child (interview from parents and teachers) and test results, the specialist starts observation and detailed diagnosis of symptoms motor dyspraxia in a child. Functional tests in dyspraxia (developmental coordination disorders) are often based on a standardized "Movement ABC Set", which includes tests detailed in three main areas of observation: fine motor skills, background postural reactions, and dynamic balance.

The following tests are also very valuable in the diagnosis of dyspraxia:

• Movement Assessment Battery for Children-2nd Edition (MABC-2); 
• Test of Gross Motor Development, 2nd Edition (TGMD-2)

In the case of dyspraxia diagnosis, tests performed in: Psychological and Pedagogical Counseling Center, and consultation with a speech therapist. 

What exercises can help your child with developmental dyspraxia?

Exercises for dyspraxia should be selected by a qualified physiotherapist and/ or occupational therapist, in terms of the child's current needs.

Examples of dyspraxia exercises include:

• inventing for a child homemade obstacle courses (rolling, jumping, passing, crawling, etc.) and games (sorting objects, arranging blocks/puzzles together)
• massage and brushing individual parts of the child's body
• wrapping the baby in a large blanket in the shape of a "pancake"
• gra into puns, imitating sounds and movements, trying to learn simple choreography together (maybe a fashionable dance from TikTok? :)

Excellent exercises for dyspraxia also include choreotherapy (dance therapy), hippotherapy (therapy using horses), going to the swimming pool, gyms and playgrounds, general development exercises and sports without elements of competition.