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Dyspraxia

Taken from Greek
“dys” (meaning difficulty) and
“praxis” (planning/sequencing – ‘to do’)


Definition:

Developmental dyspraxia is a disorder characterized by impairment in the ability to plan and carry out sensory and motor tasks. Generally, individuals with the disorder appear "out of sync" with their environment. Symptoms vary and may include poor balance and coordindysp.jpgation, clumsiness, vision problems, perception difficulties, emotional and behavioural problems, difficulty with reading, writing, and speaking, poor social skills, poor posture, and poor short-term memory. Although individuals with the disorder may be of average or above average intelligence, they may behave immaturely.  
(National Institute of Neurological Disorders). 

This definition of dyspraxia may strike you as being remarkably similar to that of dyslexia. Below is another excellent summary of dyspraxia which again could just as easily be applied to dyslexia.

Dyspraxia may affect any or all areas of development - physical, intellectual, emotional, social, language, and sensory - and may impair the normal process of learning, thus is a learning difficulty. It is not a unitary disorder (like measles or chicken pox, where all those affected share a common set of symptoms), and affects each person in different ways at different ages and stages of development, and to different degrees.                                    (Dyspraxia support group of N.Z)

How many does it affect?

The World Health Organisation states, that it affects 6% of all children to varying degrees, (Diagnostic and Statistics Manual-IV). Those with direct experience in this area would be more likely to place that estimate as high as 10%.                              
(Madelaine Portwood, Developmental Dyspraxia, 1999).

The Symptoms

As the definitions for dyslexia and dyspraxia suggest, they share many common symptoms. The major difference between the two conditions is often the degrees of difficulty or dominance of particular symptoms. For the dyspraxic child, those symptoms relating to motor control issues such as fine/gross motor skills, balance and coordination are likely to be the areas of greatest concern. Frequently however, these will be accompanied to a lesser degree, with difficulties such as poor sequencing, word reversals and poor short-term memory. Due to the similarities of the two conditions, a common set symptoms has been created, see common symptoms.

Please contact us at the Sheffield centre if you would like further information about dyspraxia or the Sens-abilty programme Tel: 079449 10016

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