Dyspraxia is the last diagnosis that I received recently and it explains so much about my life, my “clumsiness” and a wide range of struggles in my life. Struggles that I was bullied for, judged and mocked for as a child and teenager. Yet even though I’ve done a little research into the condition before I got diagnosed, I don’t understand Dyspraxia at a deep level. Therefore, in this clinical psychology podcast, you’ll learn what is Dyspraxia, what are the symptoms and causes of Dyspraxia and how is it treated. If you enjoy learning about learning difficulties, clinical psychology and neurological conditions then this will be a great episode for you.
Today’s psychology podcast episode has been sponsored by Cognitive Psychology: A Guide To Neuropsychology, Neuroscience and Cognitive Psychology. Available from all major eBook retailers and you can order the paperback and hardback copies from Amazon, your local bookstore and local library, if you request it. Also available as an AI-narrated audiobook from selected audiobook platforms and library systems. For example, Kobo, Spotify, Barnes and Noble, Google Play, Overdrive, Baker and Taylor and Bibliotheca.
What Is Dyspraxia?
Dyspraxia is a neurological condition that impacts a person’s coordination and planning of their gross and fine motor skills. Although, it can impact perception, memory, information processing, judgement and other cognitive abilities too. As well as because the condition impacts so many different areas of the brain and body, Dyspraxia looks different in different people. Also, Dyspraxia is often used interchangeably with Developmental Coordination Disorder because this is the most common type of Dyspraxia.
Furthermore, Dyspraxia is typically recognised in early childhood when a child experiences delays in achieving “normal” motor milestones, like sitting up and crawling. Then the symptoms tend to last into adolescence and adulthood. For example, I needed extra lessons before school started to learn how to throw and catch, and as a teenager, I was mocked for being clumsy and having no coordination.
In terms of coexisting with other conditions, Dyspraxia can exist by itself but it is often seen alongside conditions like dyslexia and autism, like I do, and ADHD too. And it’s important to note that Dyspraxia is not a learning disability but it can negatively impact a person’s ability to engage fully in social, professional and academic activities. For instance, Dyspraxia can impact a child’s working memory so they can experience a poorer performance in class. Therefore, it’s important for children with Dyspraxia to get a diagnosis so the school can provide specific and targeted accommodations so the child can succeed and thrive in education.
In addition, according to the Dyspraxia Foundation, Dyspraxia is believed to affect anywhere between 6% and 10% of children to some extent with 2% of children being severely affected. As well as males are more likely than females to develop the condition.
What Causes Dyspraxia?
Overall, the cause of Dyspraxia isn’t known, but we do understand some of the risk factors. For example, according to the DSM-5, having a premature birth, low birth weight, exposure to drug or alcohol use during pregnancy and a family history of the condition all increase the likelihood of a person developing the condition. Also, if the client has another condition like ADHD, then this has a major impact on how Dyspraxia presents itself.
What Are The Symptoms Of Dyspraxia?
In terms of the symptoms of Dyspraxia, symptoms tend to appear early in life because babies with Dyspraxia can have problems with feeding and be overly irritable. Then when the babies reach toddlerhood, the child can continue to have problems with feeding and they can show other developmental delays. For example, people with Dyspraxia tend to have difficulties with toilet training, being unable to throw and catch a ball as well as they can refuse to play with toys or puzzles that require construction.
For me, I flat out hated throwing and catching a ball because I was so bad at it. My primary school even required me to have extra lessons before school started because my coordination was so bad. Also, I was surprised that construction was a difficulty for people with Dyspraxia, because as a kid I loved Lego but I didn’t build it myself until I was about ten years old. For the first five years (or perhaps longer) of me playing with my Lego, my Dad had to build it all himself because I couldn’t understand how to do it.
Furthermore, another set of symptoms for Dyspraxia is that children with the condition might frequently drop things and have difficulties that involve hand-eye coordination. This can lead to issues with managing zippers and buttons. Also, it isn’t uncommon for children with Dyspraxia to avoid physical activity because they don’t want to feel the shame and embarrassment associated with being “bad” at it, because their Dyspraxia can lead to a lack of muscle development that only compounds the difficulties they face with physical activity on top of their lack of coordination.
Building upon this, the weak muscle tone associated with Dyspraxia doesn’t only impact a child’s ability to take part in sports and gym-based activities, it can even impact their ability to stand for any length of time.
In my experience of Dyspraxia, my hand-eye coordination has always been difficult and it took me ages to learn how to tie my own shoelaces, get dressed and I definitely avoided physical activity. I think for a time I did enjoy sports but because I was so bad at it, people would make comments and point out how useless I was at sports, I just ended up hating and avoiding it. Also, I am not 100% sure that this is connected to Dyspraxia, but building upon the point about weak muscles, as a child, I had a very, very weak neck according to my parents. I couldn’t actually support the weight of my own head with my own neck muscles so I needed physiotherapy as a kid to strengthen them.
Additionally, children with Dyspraxia tend to have writing and speech delays, lose things, forget things and they can have trouble picking up on nonverbal social cues. Also, Dyspraxia can cause issues with motor coordination, perception, memory, speech and language skills, emotional control and following directions. All these other symptoms can cause a lot of difficulties with concentration, organisation and planning as well as accuracy.
Interestingly, the overall result of these symptoms is impulsive or erratic behaviour, or people with Dyspraxia avoid unpredictable or new situations or even scenarios that require teamwork. Ultimately, leading to a wide range of behavioural and emotional difficulties that can include anxiety, depression, stress, fears, phobias, addictions and low self-esteem.
Personally, I can see why some people with Dyspraxia tend to get misdiagnosed with autism because there is an overlap here but autism has a lot of characteristic features that Dyspraxia does not. Like autism has the lack of eye contact, hyperfixations, repetitive behaviours amongst others that Dyspraxia lacks. Also, I would say that my lack of ability to follow directions, have good motor coordination and have good speech and language skills definitely has impacted my mental health over the years. Not because I have an issue with the symptoms I experience because of Dyspraxia, but because of other people being mean, making negative comments and judging me for not being perfect at these skills that everyone else takes for granted.
How Is Dyspraxia Treated?
Whilst there is no cure for Dyspraxia, it is still perfectly possible for people with the condition to live a good and full life where they can thrive and succeed in whatever they want. Although, there are some treatment options to help with some of the symptoms of the conditions and to help improve muscle tone and their coordination. I’ve already mentioned I received speech and language therapy and physiotherapy as a child to help me, but children with Dyspraxia can receive occupational therapy, other special services and accommodations through their school too.
In the home, children with Dyspraxia can be encouraged to take part in physical activities and active play that helps to strengthen their muscle tone as well as improve their physical coordination. Typically, cycling and swimming are often helpful to keep children with Dyspraxia physically active and this helps to reduce their risk of obesity. That was something I struggled with a lot as a child. Also, children with Dyspraxia can work on puzzle activities and skills, like throwing a beanbag to improve their hand-eye coordination. As well as using pencil grips, learning to type and other simple interventions can help improve their communication skills.
Clinical Psychology Conclusion
Personally, I have really enjoyed learning more about Dyspraxia because now that we’ve looked at what Dyspraxia is, what are symptoms and causes and what are the treatment options for Dyspraxia, a lot of things make sense. I can see how a lot of difficulties in my life were caused by Dyspraxia and thankfully, a lot of the treatment options I received have worked and has decreased a fair amount of difficulties that my Dyspraxia has caused me.
Whilst at this stage in my life because I’ve been through school, I’m basically done with university and I passed my driving test a few years ago, this diagnosis doesn’t change anything majorly for me. Yet it is nice to know that there was a neurological reason why I had so many difficulties as a child and that it wasn’t because I was useless like so many other people said.
I had Dyspraxia and that is why I wasn’t great at sports, had awful motor coordination and it was responsible for a lot of other things that people didn’t like about me.
And now I can go forward in my life knowing and being able to explain why I have such difficulty with certain things in case someone calls me a problem. I am never a problem, I am just a person with a neurological condition that might need a little more support and help compared to others.
That doesn’t make me a bad person, and this is one of the few times where a diagnostic label can be empowering instead of debilitating and stigmatising.
I have Dyspraxia and I am proud to finally know the truth behind my difficulties.
I really hope you enjoyed today’s clinical psychology podcast episode.
If you want to learn more, please check out:
Cognitive Psychology: A Guide To Neuropsychology, Neuroscience and Cognitive Psychology. Available from all major eBook retailers and you can order the paperback and hardback copies from Amazon, your local bookstore and local library, if you request it. Also available as an AI-narrated audiobook from selected audiobook platforms and library systems. For example, Kobo, Spotify, Barnes and Noble, Google Play, Overdrive, Baker and Taylor and Bibliotheca.
Have a great day.
Clinical Psychology Reference and Further Reading
Bidwell, V. (2022). Developmental coordination disorder (dyspraxia): what helps, what hinders in the school years for later achievement and wellbeing? (Doctoral dissertation, UCL (University College London)).
Castellucci, G., & Singla, R. (2024). Developmental Coordination Disorder (Dyspraxia). In StatPearls [Internet]. StatPearls Publishing.
Dyspraxia USA Foundation
Edmonds, C. (2021). An Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis of the Lived Experiences of Children with Dyspraxia in UK Secondary Schools (Doctoral dissertation, University of East London).
Leonard HC, Hill EL. Executive difficulties in development coordination disorder: Methodological issues and future directions. Current Developmental Disorders Reports. June 2015;2(2):141-149.
National Health Service (U.K.)
O’Dea, Á., Stanley, M., Coote, S., & Robinson, K. (2021). Children and young people’s experiences of living with developmental coordination disorder/dyspraxia: A systematic review and meta-ethnography of qualitative research. Plos one, 16(3), e0245738.
Patino, E. Understanding Dyspraxia. Understood.org. Reviewed by R. Goldberg MD.
Pemberton, M. (2022). All about Dyspraxia. The School Librarian, 70(3), 38-38.
Waber, D. P., Boiselle, E. C., Yakut, A. D., Peek, C. P., Strand, K. E., & Bernstein, J. H. (2021). Developmental dyspraxia in children with learning disorders: Four-year experience in a referred sample. Journal of Child Neurology, 36(3), 210-221.
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