Dyspraxia

Definition: A disorder that is characterized by difficulty in muscle control, which causes problems with movement and coordination, language and speech, and can affect learning. Although not a learning disability, dyspraxia often exists along with dyslexia, dyscalculia or ADHD.

Causes Of Dyspraxia

1.   Experts believe the person’s nerve cells that control muscles (motor neurons) are not developing correctly. If motor neurons cannot form proper connections, for whatever reason, the brain will take much longer to process data.
2. Dyspraxia may be caused by an immaturity of neuron development in the brain, rather than any specific brain damage.
3. The University of Hull in England says that Dyspraxia is “probably hereditary: several genes have been implicated.

Symptoms Of Dyspraxia

• poor balance
• poor posture
• fatique
• clumsiness
• differences in speech
• poor hand-eye coordination
• perception problems

Statistics Of Dyspraxia in the U.K:

10% of the UK population have Dyspraxia
2% of those 10% suffer with it severely.

(So to put it simple- For every 1000 people: 100 will have some degree of Dyspraxia and of those 100,  2 will have it severe.)

Dyspraxia is 4x more likely to occur in males than females, however recent studies show it’s more closer to 2 times.

5% of children in the UK have Dyspraxia

Professionals think that there is at least 1 Dyspraxic child in every classroom- whether they are diagnosed or not is another matter altogether.

Dyspraxia on Mother’s side? 37% chance of it being passed down
Dyspraxia on Father’s side? 60% chance of it being passed down
Which means that mathematically there is an 82% chance of it being passed down if both parents have dyspraxia. 

Technology Tools For Treat Dyspraxia:

• Ipad and tablets: the use of tablets allow students to have a hands on approach to completing their task, while developing their skills.Also developing their motor and speech skills.
• Voice-to-Text Applications: this allows students to take their spoken speech and transpose it into text. It provide students who may have poor hand-eye coordination the ability to use a navigate computer or create documents.
• Talking Tom (iOS): this app allows students to practice their speech, while having it repeated back to them.
• Dexteria (iOS, Android): this app is used for the development of fine motor skills, and it allows the students to work on developing their hand-eye coordination.