Dyspraxia

[MindfulMama]

Does anyone know anything about dyspraxia? My son fits all of the discriptions I have read to a tee, but I never here it mentioned here. Websites are mostly from England. I don't get it. I am frustrated looking for the right kind of learning environment for this sweet boy that struggles with so many things. He also has an expresive language difficulties, and ADD. He sees a speech therapist, OT, and has benifited from LIPS. Anyone have any advice on an educational approach?
Thanks, :

[Jennifer3141]

We're dealing with that one too!

I've learned a lot about it as a parent in Sensational Kids and from our OT. How is your DS at starting new things?

[chann96]

You can search for the term "apraxia" on this board and you should find lots of threads about it. I don't have time to post much now, but 2 important points - 1) Find a trained and experienced therapist for apraxia be it an SLP or an OT if necessary and 2) Many parents have seen results in their child from giving them fish oil supplements.

[MyTwoAs]

Yes both of my kids deal with it - other terms that are used in place of dyspraxia are motor-planning problems (I leave out problems when I google), clumsy child syndrome, and developmental coordination disorder. Like you most resources I've found are British-based, I picked up a book a couple of weeks ago that has a lot of great ideas in it. The OT works with them both as well. We were told that swimming is great for motor-planning and have both of them in swim lessons and we've seen a noticeable increase in my son's motor-planning.

[logan&jordansmommy]

Are apraxia a dyspraxia related??

When Jordan got dx with autism a few weeks ago she also dx with dyspraxia. To be honest I never looked into it since I felt like we had enough to deal with. Not a good idea I am sure. I guess I should look into it too.

[Jennifer3141]

Karen, this is one of those terms that cracks me up. Every non-science/medical journal I read says something different. I asked my OT about it and she said that our clinic uses the term verbal "apraxia" when refering to specific speech problems. We use "dyspraxia" when talking about motor planning problems. Dyspraxia is the term I've read in most of the SPD books for parents.

One of our Latin smarties or medical moms will pop up with what both terms mean.

[chann96]

Originally Posted by Jennifer3141

Karen, this is one of those terms that cracks me up. Every non-science/medical journal I read says something different. I asked my OT about it and she said that our clinic uses the term verbal "apraxia" when refering to specific speech problems. We use "dyspraxia" when talking about motor planning problems. Dyspraxia is the term I've read in most of the SPD books for parents.

One of our Latin smarties or medical moms will pop up with what both terms mean.

LOL That's probably a very good delineation. I've heard both dyspraxia and apraxia used for speech so I automatically think it them both in terms of speech. Didn't occur to me the OP might be talking about overall motor planning. Of course I tend to be of the opinion (based on talking to her old OT and some reading) that many kids with verbal apraxia also display some form of limb or global apraxia (dyspraxia perhaps?). The brain is a funny thing and we know so little about it still.

I think technically "apraxia" means "without praxis (motor movement)" because the "a" prefix means "without" while "dyspraxia" means "impaired praxis (motor movement)". I think the functional definitions stray from the technical definitions though.

[Jennifer3141]

You're probably right, Ann.

And since my son has the dyspraxic label, when I talk about him I mean that he has a very difficult time motor planning. He doesn't think that he has to drop the stuff in his left hand to use that hand to help him get on a swing. He gets a toy with multiple steps and can't remember the steps involved so gets frustrated and throws that toy because it won't do what he pictures in his head.

Apraxia isn't really one I worry about yet. We're still at the, "Uh oh!" stage. I don't know if he technically has any real speech defects because he doesn't really talk yet.

[chann96]

LOL It's so funny how we define things in our own heads or circle of friends and then people look at you like you have 3 heads for saying it the same way outside of that group.

Hopefully your son's speech develops typically. Give you one less thing to have to focus on anyway.

[logan&jordansmommy]

Yeah, from what I remember our dev ped saying is dyspraxia had to do with motor planning. I was told J isn't apraxic though. I don't know when I told my friend who is a school psychologist that they said he has dypraxia she said that is the new fancy term. Who knows! They also dx him with a communication disorder and I want to say something else too. I wanted to say, isn't autism enough!? I do understand why they give the additional dx since "just autism" doesn't tell where his areas of weakness are, but still. OK, I don't know where all that came from, guess I still didn't answer the initial question

[sbgrace]

Dyspraxia has been mentioned lots of times with my son. In his case it doesn't seem to affect him verbally or at least not nearly as much as it does in terms of his motor skills.
I think I'm dyspraxic too actually. I've got a terrible time learning things from watching and actually even coordinating new motor movements altogether. I remember a terrible start to school because I couldn't skip and those sorts of things (and writing, and cutting). I am an excellent swimmer but have unorthodox technique becuase I just can't coordinate things the way I was taught. Didn't stop me from being recruited for swim team. I think Andrew is going to be a good swimmer too so find that mentioned here interesting. In general though I found learning motor skills very frustrating and demoralizing growing up. I hope I can spare Andrew some of that somehow.
I guess I need to research this more.
My son's developmental therapist had a son with severe apraxia of speech (affecting all mouth movements including eating/swallowing) but excellent/above average gross and fine motor abilities. My son has dyspraxia of motor movements but his speech movements are good. I mostly wanted to say that I think there may be over-lap in some kids but speech isn't always affected and I suspect that some kids speech is the main thing and not motor skills.

[LynnS6]

Praxis means the ability to plan and to carry out sequences of coordinated movements. (It's actually Greek for those who care.)

• Dys = bad, so dyspraxia = bad motor planning.
• A= no, so technically apraxia = inability to carry out motor planning.

HOWEVER, that's not how the terms are used now. As Jennifer said, dyspraxia is used for general motor planning and apraxia for verbal/oral motor issues. Not sure how that happened.

Our son has dyspraxia but not apraxia. (It's part of his Sensory Integration Dysfunction.) We work on it with our OT. I recommend Sensational Kids as well.