Mar 08 2007
Dealing with Dyspraxia: Diagnosis and Treatment Options
Dyspraxia is a disorder that relates to the fine motor skills and their development. When you have this disorder, you have difficulties completing even the most remedial tasks. It is interesting to note that Dyspraxia seems to be prevalent in males and makes up merely two percent of the general population. Completing very simple tasks, which most take for granted, may include everyday such as tying shoes, waving goodbye or brushing hair or teeth.
Although the types of challenges in this disorder may change throughout the person’s lifetime, this is a disorder that remains with them and continues to attack their motor skill development. When a young child, such as a baby, is afflicted with Dyspraxia they will avoid common movements like rolling over or crawling. There are other signs that the child could have this disorder, as well. They can include difficulties with the eye movement, where they move their head rather than their eyes to follow a moving object. They may have trouble holding drinking cups or using such things as spoons. Most of the common things children do are greatly affected, too. These tasks may include activities such as skipping, running or jumping. Dyspraxia will also give great difficulty to speech, assembling recognizable sentences and language troubles. They may appear quite clumsy and fall or walk into walls or stationary objects. It may be difficult to determine what hand they prefer, finding out their laterality could prove challenging. It is also noticed that clothing may be very uncomfortable, and may even be a bit painful.
When the child gets a little older and is now in school, they may find it hard to get along with others. Immaturity is a common trait, and their social skills suffer. Sometimes they become worrisome and pick up random phobias and often even develop obsessive compulsions. Academic problems, rapidly changing body and coordination changes, and speech are all issues that young people with Dyspraxia face. The fact that Dyspraxia is incurable has not troubled doctors too much, as there are early interventions. The use of therapists for motor skills and speech, if used early on, can be quite helpful. This can be an aide in bettering the quality of life now and in the future. It is crucial to the Dyspraxia affected child, that their parents show patience and care. This can be a very frustrating problem, yet you must remember that it would be five times compounded for the actual individual that is affected by it. Offering support and a willingness to help overcome obstacles, will in turn keep their need for improvement at a high. This will show them in the future that they can in fact become independent and successful.
Anyone with Dyspraxia will need help in developing coordination, fine motor skills and even social skills. This will encourage them to be self-confident and give them drive to overcome all the large and small challenges that they will face. Helping them boost self-esteem will give them the willingness to make friends and fit in. They will need these life skills to develop means of beating the odds of failure due to the personal struggles they face on a daily basis. It is said that many individuals will never be able to overcome the struggles they face with this disorder, making it hard for them to adapt in society. The level of discomfort associated with Dyspraxia is more of the social order, as the disorder can easily cause depression, and manic compulsive behavior. It is not uncommon for a child with this disorder to be placed in special education programs, as it basically would be detrimental to the development of the child, to be placed with peers of higher function. These special classes work with children and help with developmental speech and language therapy. This gives them the opportunity to develop at a rate that is comfortable for them, while not stunting development through forced learning and progression. It may seem that these classes are geared for the hearing impaired, as most of the classes cater to hand movements, pictures or cue cards. When someone who has Dyspraxia is approached for the first time, it is as if there is some lag in time, like they are just out of sync. What is most misunderstood about this disorder is that people assume there is a lack of intelligence associated with the disorder, this cannot be further from the truth.
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