Developmental coordination disorder

Developmental coordination disorder is a chronic disability that affects coordination. It is also known as developmental motor coordination disorder, developmental dyspraxia or dyspraxia. Around 2-6% of people have dyspraxia. Four times as many males than females have it. It is sometimes called 'clumsy child syndrome', but adults have it too. Most people with dyspraxia have other disabilities such as ADHD or autism and Hypermobility.

There is no single cause of dyspraxia. It may not appear until later in childhood or sometimes even in adolescence. It cannot be cured: people who have it will live with it for life, however people are able to overcome it and find alternative ways to accomplish tasks which may usually be difficult without support.

Signs

• Difficulty tying shoelaces
• Difficulty running, crouching and climbing stairs
• Poor coordination
• Untidiness
• Incorrect way of running
• Self-care difficulties
• Messy eating
• Not doing well in Physical Education classes
• Inability to ride a bike, jump rope and spin a hoop
• Not alternating feet when going on stairs

Associated disorders

People who have developmental coordination disorder may also have one or more of these conditions:

• Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) (inattention, hyperactivity, impulsive behaviour).
• Autism spectrum disorder
• Dyscalculia (difficulty with mathematics),
• Dysgraphia (an inability to write neatly and/or draw),
• Dyslexia (difficulty with reading and spelling),^: 28
• Hypotonia (low muscle tone)
• Sensory processing disorder
• Specific language impairment (SLI)
• Visual perception deficits

Famous people with dyspraxia

Daniel Radcliffe has dyspraxia.

References

Other websites

• Dyspraxia Foundation website Archived 2015-02-15 at the Wayback Machine
• Dyspraxia Yahoo Group Archived 2019-10-16 at the Wayback Machine

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