Dyspraxia: types, causes, symptoms and treatment

This disorder appears in children who have difficulty coordinating their movements.

Tying shoelaces, eating, writing or combing our hair are activities that for most people can be easy and automatic. However, most of these activities involve a set of different actions and movements that we must learn to coordinate.

But some people have serious difficulties in doing so since childhood, failing to develop this ability. These are the people who suffer from dyspraxia..

Dyspraxia: definition of the concept

The dyspraxia or disorder of the development of the coordination is one of the neurodevelopmental disorders, in which children who suffer from it show great difficulty in performing coordinated activities and movements, whether they involve simple gestures or actions involving sequencing of movements.

Symptoms

The most evident symptoms are the presence of clumsiness, incoordination and motor slowness, interfering with the motor, interfering with the usual life and development of the subject. It is common to have difficulties in postural maintenance and when performing acts that require fine mobility, requiring assistance to perform basic actions.

Also immature behavior and social difficulties may also appear.. It is not infrequent that there are communication problems. However, these alterations are not related to the existence of any psychic disability, and those suffering from dyspraxia have a normal intelligence.

Unlike apraxia, in which previously acquired faculties are lost, dyspraxia is characterized by the fact that the subject has never developed the ability to correctly sequence his or her movements. It is frequent that the first symptoms are already observable during the first two years of age, and it is common that they present delays in the development of motor skills and take longer and take longer than usual to reach some of the developmental milestones.

Although it arises during childhood, it is also seen in adults, and it is important to start treatment as soon as possible in order to reduce social stigma and possible consequences throughout development. There tends to be comorbidity with other disorders, such as other motor problems or ADHD.

Types of dyspraxia

As with apraxias, there are different types of dyspraxia depending on what part of the movement process or organism the difficulty occurs in. Four types stand out in particular.

1. Ideational dyspraxia

This type of dyspraxia is characterized by the fact that the problem is not only at the motor level, but that the subject has difficulties to plan at the level of idea the sequence of movements necessary to perform a necessary to perform a specific action.

2. Ideomotor dyspraxia

In ideomotor dyspraxia, the main difficulty is in following the chain of movements necessary to carry out a simple action. The difficulty is only at the motor level, the subject being able to perform the action correctly in the imagination. the action correctly in the imagination.. Often the difficulty is linked to the use of an instrument or object.

3. Constructive dyspraxia

This is a type of dyspraxia in which the sufferer has difficulty understanding spatial relationships and acting accordingly. For example, a child with this problem will have problems in making a copy of an image or in copying an image or in organizing himself or herself..

4. Oro-motor dyspraxia or verbal apraxia

In this type of dyspraxia the subject presents difficulties in coordinating the movements necessary to communicate orally, despite knowing what he/she wants to say. It is difficult to produce intelligible sounds.

Causes of dyspraxia

The causes of the appearance of dyspraxia are not completely known, but it is suspected that they are due to existing alterations throughout neurodevelopment that generate that the brain areas linked to the integration of motor information and its sequencing do not mature correctly. These brain areas are located in the posterior part of the frontal lobes and in the posterior part of the frontal lobes. around the Rolando's fissure.

It is usually due to innate causes, but can be caused by injury, disease and trauma during childhood.

Treatment and therapeutic strategies

Dyspraxia is a disorder that has no curative treatment, although it is possible to employ different strategies to improve the adaptation of those affected to the environment and to teach them to perform different actions. The treatment of dyspraxia is multidisciplinary.taking into account both clinical and especially psychoeducational aspects.

In order to help these children, strategies such as occupational therapy are often used to stimulate the subject and contribute to the development of their ability to move. Another element to highlight is physiotherapy.

Speech therapy is also often essential to educate the child and allow him/her to develop the coordination necessary to be able to utter words correctly. At the educational level it may be necessary to establish individualized plans that take into account the child's difficulties.

The use of expressive therapy or techniques to promote the child's self-esteem, which may be diminished by the perception of his or her difficulties, can also be very useful. Training in social skills also facilitates a correct bonding with the environment. Psychoeducation both for them and for the environment can be of great help in order to facilitate the normative development of the subject and the understanding of the existing difficulties.