When children have problems coordinating movements, they may have dyspraxia. This is a lifelong disorder in learning how to move. The causes cannot be treated; however, targeted therapy interventions can significantly improve patients’ gross and fine motor skills.
What is dyspraxia?
Dyspraxia is a lifelong coordination and developmental disorder also known as clumsy child syndrome. About eight to ten percent of all children suffer from the disorder. Boys are affected more often than girls. Dyspraxia patients have problems bringing movements and actions into
or are unable to plan such actions in a goal-oriented manner. As a result, they cannot simply do what they would like to do. Each task must be thought through step by step to get from the beginning to the end. For example, if a dyspraxic child wants to tie his shoelaces, he must first know exactly what the shoelace looks like when tied.
Causes
Planned and anticipatory action is as necessary for any movement as are functioning motor skills. In dyspraxic children, however, this does not work automatically. On the contrary, they have to think about every movement beforehand. Their ability to plan movement sequences is clearly limited, which results in motor difficulties. The exact causes of dyspraxia are not yet fully understood and need to be further investigated. The only certainty is that it results from damage to the brain. It is possible that the disorder is a result of immature neuron development. It is often part of a continuum of related coordination and developmental disorders. For example, dyspraxia often occurs in conjunction with autism, ADHD, Asperger syndrome, dyslexia, or dyscalculia.
Symptoms, complaints, and signs
Dyspraxia manifests itself in gross and fine motor disorders. Affected children find it difficult to learn and plan movements and actions. That is, they cannot store certain movement sequences and recall them when needed. Furthermore, they have difficulties in moving arms and legs at the same time. As a result, they have difficulty performing activities that children of the same age normally perform. These include tying shoelaces, catching a ball, or building a tower out of wooden blocks. Other symptoms include slipping facial features and uncontrolled movement of individual limbs. At school, dyspraxia often manifests itself in the form of dyslexia. Numbers and letters are confused. 18 becomes 81, 6 becomes 9 or b becomes p. In addition, the affected children have problems holding the fountain pen and writing something at the same time. In addition, there are difficulties with shapes, lengths, sizes, directions and spatial relationships.
Diagnosis and progression
Children diagnosed with dyspraxia lack the ability to learn movement sequences. They stand out because of uncoordinated hand movements and movements. They also take significantly longer to learn certain things. Everyday tasks, such as getting dressed in the morning, are often impossible for these patients. In addition, there is frequent teasing by classmates during school hours. Dyspraxia patients are perceived by their classmates as less intelligent and slower. As a result, long-term bullying can have a strong impact on the child’s psyche. In addition, depression may occur due to constant failure or lack of understanding in the social environment. Since dyspraxia lasts a lifetime, early diagnosis is extremely significant. This is the only way to successfully improve the symptoms.
Complications
Because of dyspraxia, children experience complications in movement patterns. These are usually not learned properly. If dyspraxia is not treated, life-threatening conditions can result if the child cannot perform certain movements. The disorder can be extremely limiting to the child’s daily life. It is usually not possible to plan or purposefully perform certain actions. Social difficulties and concentration problems occur. Often, children are unable to follow what is going on at school and cannot correctly assess dangerous situations. This can lead to serious injuries.In some cases, uncontrolled movements also occur, which can lead to bullying. In addition, everyday life is made more difficult due to a reading disability and a spelling disability. Likewise, shapes and lengths can not be correctly recognized and assigned, which greatly hinders learning success. The limited motor skills also lead to difficulties with eating and drinking, so that the children are dependent on the help of other people. Treatment is aimed primarily at the complications that make everyday life difficult, so that the patient can live on his or her own in adulthood. However, this is not possible in all cases.
When should you go to the doctor?
Since there is no self-healing in dyspraxia, a doctor must be consulted in any case. The earlier the disease is treated, the higher the probability of a positive course of the disease in the patient. As a rule, the doctor must be consulted when the affected person shows complaints in coordination. An unsteady gait or difficulties with simple movements can also indicate dyspraxia and should be examined. Most of those affected also have problems with fine motor skills and gross motor skills, so that a doctor must be consulted for these complaints as well. Especially in children, early diagnosis is necessary. Furthermore, complaints in reading and writing can also indicate dyspraxia, so that the child needs special support in his or her life. If the affected person suffers from bullying or teasing, psychological care should be initiated. The diagnosis itself can be made by a pediatrician. However, further treatment is carried out with the help of various therapies at the respective specialists. The patient’s life expectancy is usually not affected by dyspraxia.
Treatment and therapy
If dyspraxia is suspected, the pediatrician in charge will first take a history of the child. This will allow somatic and neurological damage to be ruled out. This is followed by an assessment of the patient’s difficulties in coping with everyday life. The causes of dyspraxia cannot yet be treated. Instead, parents of affected children can try to improve their offspring’s gross and fine motor coordination. Methods of occupational therapy, physiotherapy or motopedics can be used for this purpose. In therapy, children perform specific movement sequences under guidance and thus gain more confidence. Depending on the extent of the disease, speech therapy may also be necessary. Targeted oral therapy can, for example, resolve problems with eating and drinking. In addition, parents of affected patients should ensure a continuous daily routine. Each day should be clearly structured and strongly resemble the previous one. Many children find it helpful if their parents prepare the next day with them in the evening. For example, they can prepare breakfast and choose clothes together. In addition, parents need to give their child special encouragement and support. This requires patience, advocacy, praise, understanding and empathy. Together, they should talk to the child about the disorder. This often leads to great relief on both sides. In contrast, inappropriate reprimanding of the child often leads to severe self-doubt.
Outlook and prognosis
Dyspraxia is not considered curable according to current scientific knowledge. Since the causes of the disease cannot be comprehensively clarified to this day, there is no therapeutic method that leads to a cure of dyspraxia. Nevertheless, with a good and individual treatment plan, significant improvements in the patient’s health can be achieved. In a physiotherapy as well as occupational therapy, the possibilities of the movement sequences are specifically trained and improved. The affected person learns how to cope with everyday life with the existing limitations. However, some symptoms remain lifelong despite all efforts. Nevertheless, a good way of life is possible with the motor skills learned. Well-being depends on how the patient deals with the disease in everyday life. If the affected person succeeds in adapting well to the dyspraxia, a fulfilled life becomes possible. If further illnesses occur, the prognosis worsens.Particularly in the case of psychological disorders or mental stress, a downward development of the learned motor skills is recognizable. If the psyche stabilizes and the patient lives in a caring and understanding environment, an alleviation of the symptoms can be seen. If self-doubt can be overcome and a fundamentally optimistic basic attitude to life can be maintained, the symptoms normally improve.
Prevention
According to current knowledge, there are some risk factors that promote dyspraxia. These include complications during pregnancy and childbirth, such as growth retardation of the unborn child, infections during pregnancy, low birth weight, or premature birth. Accordingly, pregnant women should eat a balanced diet and generally maintain a very healthy lifestyle.
Follow-up care
The measures and options for aftercare are usually very limited in dyspraxia. First and foremost, the affected person is thereby dependent on a comprehensive examination, which should take place at an early stage. Only an early diagnosis of dyspraxia can prevent further complaints or disorders in the child’s development. The earlier the disease is detected, the better the further course is usually. For this reason, parents should consult a doctor at the first signs and symptoms of the disease in order to prevent the symptoms from worsening. The treatment of dyspraxia is usually carried out by therapy or by measures of physiotherapy. This does not lead to further complications. Parents can also repeat some exercises from these therapies with the child at home and thus continue to alleviate the symptoms. Often, intensive therapy and care by the parents or other relatives is necessary. Intensive and loving conversations with the child are also very useful. The parents can also seek contact with other sufferers of dyspraxia, as this often leads to an exchange of information. As a rule, this disease does not reduce the life expectancy of the child.
What you can do yourself
Dyspraxia cannot be cured, but the most severe motor deviations can be corrected by targeted support of the affected children. However, this requires their active participation. This in turn can only be achieved by strengthening their self-esteem. Often, however, the self-confidence of those affected is very limited, which then prevents a positive development of motor skills. If the child takes longer to do his homework, always performs poorly in sports, has difficulty with spatial orientation or cannot coordinate his movements, it is therefore particularly important to first offer him comfort. This creates the prerequisite for developing strategies together with him on how to improve his performance. Since the information-processing processes of people with dyspraxia are different from those of most other people, other learning strategies must be used to develop gross and fine motor skills. With the help of these strategies, significant improvement in motor skills is then possible. Any improvement in performance should be rewarded by praise and advocacy, as this is the only way to stabilize it. Counterproductive in this context would be constant reprimanding and impatience. Above all, the child should be talked to about his weaknesses, while at the same time being made to feel that, although he cannot help it, improvement is possible.
