Dyspraxia, when performing certain tasks is difficult

The dyspraxia is a disorder that affects the planning and implementation of tasks that have a motorcycle componentr, from movements to articulation of language. It is believed that up to 6% of children under 11 years could present some degree of dyspraxia, Daniel Radcliffe, the actor who plays the famous wizard Harry Potter on the big screen, suffers from dyspraxia.

What is dyspraxia?

It is a little-known psychomotor disorder that causes clumsiness, slowness, and difficulty performing coordinated movementss that require the participation of various muscle groups: writing, tying shoes, riding a bicycle, or articulating language. For this reason dyspraxia also It is known as the "clumsy child syndrome" or "developmental motor coordination disorder." If we look at the etymology of dyspraxia, "dis-" indicates difficulty or anomaly and the word of Greek origin "praxis" means practice, that is, it refers to the difficulty in performing certain tasks.

Types of dyspraxia and their causes

It mainly affects motor coordination but children who suffer from it may also have difficulties in other areas, such as language or emotional development. There is no relationship between dyspraxia and delayed intellectual abilities. These nuances define the types of dyspraxia.

• Ideomotor dyspraxia: Difficulty between the sequence of thinking and performing a simple task. The child has difficulties in performing simple tasks that involve only one step. For example, combing your hair.
• Ideational dyspraxia: Difficulty in the chain of simple sequences that give rise to a more complex final act. For example, braid, pick a lock, or tie your shoelaces.
• Oromotor or speech dyspraxia: The phonatory muscles are affected causing problems of pronunciation of words or syllables, giving problems in speech.
• Constructive dyspraxia: Difficulty in understanding the spatial relationships between objects. Affected the ability to understand and apply spatial relationships. For example: putting a small object inside a larger one.

In most cases of dyspraxia the cause is not known. What I do suspect is that it could be caused by small brain lesions in the maturation process of neurons. There are certain risk factor's that increase the chances that the child will suffer from it:

• Anoxia at the time of delivery.
• Prematurity.
• Consumption of alcohol, tobacco or drugs during pregnancy.

How can parents detect dyspraxia in their child?

It is a disorder that affects 6% of children and more frequently males (between 70 to 80% of diagnoses). Parents usually suspect that something is wrong with your child because they notice difficulties when the child performs simple tasks such as putting on shoes, buttoning buttons or brushing teeth. This situation can affect emotionally the child, causing a lot of frustration and low self-esteem.

• Many families detect this type of problems before 2 years. When taking the medical history of the child, we can observe difficulties when crawling or delayed ambulation and speech problems, that is, the motor and language development of children with this disease is slower than expected.
• Between the 3 and 5 years continues the clumsiness and the difficulty in performing movements or actions that require a certain coordination. We can observe that they fall frequently, difficulty in going down and up stairs and may present flapping of the hands. Language is usually more immature than the rest of his equals.
• Between the 5 and 7 years can be observed certain difficulties eating or dressing alone School performance can be affected by having concentration problems, being slower to finish tasks or having graphomotor problems.

In adulthood, if it has not been treated in childhood or the person has severe dyspraxia, they may have problems with such basic tasks as driving or cooking.

How is dyspraxia diagnosed?

One is made, passing a test battery that study the motor and intellectual acquisitions of the child. The evolution depends on the moment of diagnosis, the severity of the dyspraxia and the involvement of the family in the treatment.

The psychological therapy It is necessary when there is an ideational dyspraxia and the speech therapist will be in charge of working on speech problems if they are present. However, in all cases the intervention of the family is necessary so that they learn to apply at home the exercises that the child needs. The therapy is quite simple and consists of repeating motor sequences. Together with an appropriate intervention, it greatly improves the prognosis of the child, successfully overcoming his difficulties.

• • Dyspraxia is an alittle-known psychomotor disorder that causes clumsiness, slowness and difficulty in performing coordinated movements that require the participation of various muscle groups: writing, tying shoes, riding a bicycle, speaking ...
  • It is suspected that it may be caused by small brain injuries in the maturation process of neurons.
  • Early diagnosis together with adequate intervention greatly improves the child's prognosis, that you can successfully overcome your difficulties.

Pediatric specialist