Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Twice Exceptional Praxis

Hi Everyone,

I have been reading these forums for a few months now, but haven't been very active in participating. My DD is 2.5 and is in OT for eating issues. The range of foods she eats is very narrow, and if she has something in her mouth she doesn't like she will not just gag, but completely throw up to get rid of it. She is a little better about it now, however, because she just fully refuses to try anything new - ha!

Today, her therapist told me that she suspected this for a while, but it was confirmed to her that DD has praxis. I think that's the right term, anyway. I've only had about a 5 minute conversation with her about it. She said that basically, DD has trouble figuring out how to play with a toy or do a task without being shown or told how first, and that DD is very, VERY smart with an amazing memory and other skills that compensate for it so it has taken her a while to determine that is what is going on. She also said that it is something that would really affect her in school so recognizing it now will help her learn to deal with it sooner.

Is there anyone out there dealing with this issue?

You're talking about apraxia - praxis is the "movement plan" that she lacks. I think there are quite a few apraxic kids here - you'll probably have better luck finding the threads with the correct search terms. Good luck!

"Praxis" means difficulty with motor planning. Two of the terms you'll hear mentioned are apraxia and dyspraxia. If I understand correctly, apraxia means "absence" where "dyspraxia" means not-fully-functional. That's my totally non-technical explanation! In real terms, when I've talked to other parents etc, I more often hear the term "apraxia" related to speech/oral language, and dyspraxia related to other types of motor development. From the reading I've done, it seems that just as there are hundreds of different ways that our bodies use motor planning, there are as many and possibly thousands times more ways in which dyspraxia/apraxia can impact a person - so apraxia or dyspraxia in one person might look entirely different in another person with the same diagnosis.

Our ds12 is dyspraxic - his diagnosis is "Developmental Coordination Disorder". In his case, the challenge isn't quite that he has to be shown something to learn how to do it, but that he has a challenge with developing the automaticity that is required to do fine motor skills such as tying your shoes, handwriting etc. When he was very young, he was delayed in learning how to crawl, walk, talk etc. No one really thought much of it at the time because of several reasons - he was our first child and we were seeing all the things that were a-ok with him and not realizing that the little quirks in development were anything other than quirks; several of our family members were also late in developing the same skills and we wrote it off to either being the first child and not needing to do those things or taking after older family members (who most likely, in hindsight, were also dyspraxic!), and also because even before he could talk it was clear that he was very bright, and once he started talking he sounded like a little professor - it was clear he was a high IQ kid - so much of his quirkiness was chalked up to that.

In school the primary impact for our ds has been in handwriting - he uses a laptop and keyboarding across all subjects, including math. It seemed to take him a long time to learn math facts too, even though he's always been very quick at learning math concepts. He is also not terribly coordinated, so things like team sports and gym class are among the things he'd like to wipe off the face of the earth! He also has a few quirky things that most people wouldn't recognize as meaning anything, but they are related to his dyspraxia - he learned how to write in cursive in 4th grade but completely forgot it after not using it for the summer. Getting dressed takes him a long time. He thinks he's running when really he's just walking semi-fast and not really all that fast. He didn't learn how to blow his nose until he was 11 (in spite of trying like crazy for years). His stomach feels like it's full before it really is.

Now that you've read all of that you might be thinking - YIKES! or UGH. Try not to worry - there are also many *many* wonderful things I could write down about our ds if I had the time or wasn't going to run out of cyber-space to write it in. Being dyspraxic hasn't been the highlight of his life, but it also hasn't held him back from being the funny, bright, creative, loving, totally typically happy kid that he is. He's fine, and I'm sure your dd will be fine too

BTW, ds used to eat anything when he was really young, but starting at around 7 he became very picky at 7. He still has issues with texture etc at 12. I think that's not uncommon in kids with issues with praxis, but I could be mistaken.

Welcome to the forums - there are several other parents around who are dealing with similar issues, so you aren't alone.

Best wishes,

polarbear

ps - wanted to add a quick note for anyone who's reading this and dealing with dyspraxia - I mentioned my ds' intense dislike for gym and team sports, and fwiw he tends to naturally gravitate toward being a couch potato - but the difficulties he has in gym and with team sports due to motor planning haven't kept him from having an active and healthy set of activities to enjoy - he loves mountain biking and skiing and those are sports he can enjoy without having to keep up with other kids who don't have the same motor planning challenges.

Thanks ElizabethN and polarbear! Proper terms would help! I would suppose this is why I didn't not find much searching Google. Like I said, I only had a few minute conversation with the therapist (with a screaming 5 week old in my ear) so I still don't know very much. I'm still a little confused because my DD doesn't seem to have any motor skill delay. In fact, she has been ahead with all her milestones and started writing letters when she was 20 months old, but she does, however, have a little trouble with front-to-back balance. More research is in order!

My DD also had her first visit with a chiropractor yesterday and she said her neck was in really rough shape and the nerves that control some of the functions she is having sensory issues with (balance, among others) is what was worst. She said we may start to see her sensory issues improve somewhat with chiropractic treatment.

MoN - is the stiffening or the fluid response to a balance challenge the dyspraxic response?

We have a lot of the type of issues that polarbear mentioned, with DS9. It was only a couple of years ago, maybe less, that I finally looked up that term, "apraxia", that people here talked about, and figured out that's what DS had!

I have always described it as a total lack of kinesthesia (body sense). He didn't learn to tie his shoes till he was 8, and he still can't ride a bike. When I would try to teach him something like how to hold his fingers in the right position for something (like holding a pencil, etc.), he would look at my fingers and do something totally different with his, even though it was obvious he was concentrating really hard on trying to make his fingers look like mine. There was just no connection between what his brain was telling his body to do and what his body was actually doing.

He's gotten better over the years, and he seems to have a better sense of balance these days, but there are still some trials.

It can be really frustrating -- all the things the brain can do, but the body lags behind.

The actor who plays Harry Potter is dyspraxic. (Not sure that's the right way to say it). My now 3.5 yr old was dx almost a year ago. It has taken a long time to find an OT who works with sensory integration. However after a few months of some decent OT work we have seen a big change. I wish we could have started sooner. I will say more later but I am on small phone running out of batteery...one thing I will say is dyslexia runs rampant in my family from very severe to mild. I watch my little one and it looks like dyslexia of physical coordination.

Nautigal, there is a test called "finger tapping" that is used in diagnosing fine motor dyspraxia - the tester taps different combinations of fingers together and asks the person being tested to copy what they see. Our ds can't do this - he tries his best, but has to look at his hand, hold it in different positions while he studies it and then inevitably taps a completely different set of fingers together.

flower, we have dyslexic relatives in my dh's family... as well as relatives I suspect are undiagnosed dyslexic and dyspraxic.

polarbear

My son was diagnosed with dyspraxia at age 11 but his difficulties seemed to have more to do with his low muscle tone and loose joints which caused him to fatigue faster than other kids. He could not practice skills as long as other kids because of the low endurance. I would say he got about half as much practice but since he seemed to learn twice as fast as other kids for most things it didn't seem that much of a problem.

He wouldn't do jigsaw puzzles, didn't like coloring, and he didn't like to draw but he learned to write his name before he turned 5. His handwriting was legible but sloppy and he had trouble coloring in the lines and cutting with a knife and buttoning but I think it had more to do with his loose finger joints.

At four he was able to learn dances for musical theater but I did notice that he e seemed to have a hard time with learning to do hand motions with dances if he had to do them quickly but he learned to compensate for that by naming the motion and saying it in his head so I guess he compensated by using verbal memory and it worked well for him. He had to learn the dance first this way and then he could add the singing that was also required. His balance has always been good. He is usually able figure out a way to compensate for his disabilities if given the chance but then people had trouble believing he had a disability when they saw him perform. We had trouble getting his doctors to approve PT or OT until he was 11 and finally got the diagnosis of dyspraxia and then they said it was too late for OT so we have just had to figure out a lot of things on our own with the help of people on message boards like this one.

Polar, who can diagnose dyspraxia? is that a neuropsych thing, or an OT thing?

I've never seen an OT give this test, but it sounds very revealing...

DeeDee