Developmental Coordination Disorder? Anyone familiar with it?

[fourcatmom]

The Vision Therapist today told me that she thinks dd 10 has developmental coordination disiorder and wants her to continue with OT to help improve her balance and coordination.

 

Anyone familiar with this? Anything you can share?

[Tiramisu]

You can also look up dyspraxia. It's supposed to be different in some way but it's kind of the same. Clear, right?

 

We do not have that dx because dd technically did not meet the criteria but her weaknesses point in that direction, according to the NP. She came to that conclusion based on things that came up during the evaluation, in tests on processing speed, visual processing, visual-motor integration, manual dexterity, and that kind of thing.

 

I was surprised, but at the same time, it explained a lot of what we saw in real life. Dd is really clumsy. She falls up stairs, rather a lot. Runs into things. Her pencil grip always seemed off to me and her handwriting wasn't great, but I had attributed that to being a lefty. (Sorry, lefties!). She would also sometimes leave out letters in her words when she wrote even though she knew the spelling. Despite all this, I don't think anyone just looking at dd would realize that there's an issue at all.

 

The NP said that if dd was younger, she would have recommended OT, but given her age, other things took priority.

[Tiramisu]

Just wanted to add that I have another one who scored poorly on tests of visual motor integration (we haven't done a full neuropsych eval) and has had physical writing problems, so she probably has similar weaknesses. Her balance and coordination are much better, however, and we attribute that to years of doing martial arts.

[VinNY]

http://www.amazon.com/Developmental-Dyspraxia-Identification-Intervention-Professionals/dp/1853469882

 

Great book and intervention strategies for dyspraxia.

[herekittykitty]

Thank you for this book recommendation. It looks like a great resource.

[mamatohaleybug]

My DD has dsypraxia. OT was definitely helpful. She does private ballet and swimming lessons. That has been great because she can't keep up with a group but she still gets to do the work and feel the satisfaction of a good well done.

 

Happy to chat anytime. Just not sure what to tell you that would be helpful. If you have questions, I'd be happy to answer. :)

[westcoastmom]

Here is a link to a good book on Developmental Coordination Disorder: http://dcd.canchild.ca/en/DCDFAQs/resources/dcdrevised.pdf

 

I have a child with this diagnosis, but it seems to be a hard diagnosis to get. Everything I read about DCD really speaks to me about my child. People seem to give it the big brush off because they can walk, talk and don't look like they have a physical problem. Then there are the comments "lots of kids can't throw or catch a ball" Irony is that if DCD is present in about 5-6% of the population likely some of those children are undiagnosed DCD.

[herekittykitty]

I received this book today and it looks great.

http://www.amazon.com/Developmental-Dyspraxia-Identification-Intervention-Professionals/dp/1853469882

 

Again I appreciate the recommendation. It has a ton of OT type exercises you can do with your child, including ways to assess them. It is a great resource if OT is out of reach financially or geographically, or if you just prefer to work at home.