Dyspraxia affects the way in which we planor actions and speech and how we actually perform those actions or speech acts. It is associated with problems of sensory perception, language thought and information processing abilities.
Dyspraxia is much more prevalent than one would imagine, affecting up to ten per cent of the population, two per cent experiencing severe dyspraxia. Males are four times more likely to be affected than females. Dyspraxia can be inherited meaning there is a genetic form of the condition, but research suggests it can also be caused by an immaturity of neron developmentetc. It can also co-occur with other neurodevelopmental conditions, which also suggests that it can be caused by brain injury.
Other names for dyspraxia have included 'Developmental Co-ordination Disorder (DCD), Perceptuo-Motor Dysfunction, Motor Learning Difficulties, Minimal Brain Damage and Clumsy Child Syndrome.
What symptoms would a child with dyspraxia display?
Key developmental stages might be delayed, such as. rolling, sitting, standing, walking, and speaking.
May have difficulty in coordinating themselves in order to, hop, jump, or catch or kick a ball although their peers can do so.
The child might have difficulty with the pragmatics of social behaviour, - judging how to behave in company and therefore might have difficulty in making or keeping friendship attachments.
May display difficulty in understanding logistical spatial concepts such as 'in', 'on', 'in front of' and logical relationships such as 'your mother's brother,etc.
May have poor self help skills, being unable to dress, tie laces, fasten buttons, etc without adult help.
Motor execution of movement might be slow and hesitant.
Procedural learning seems to be a problem, skills having to be explicitly taught.
May fall, trip and stumble more frequently than peers.
Games requiring sorting skills, or fine motor co-ordination pose difficulties, consequently writing and artwork is very haphazard.
May display anxiety and lack of attentional skills, leading to distraction.
Has difficulty with memory, following instructions, copying from blackboard etc.
Poor organisational skills.
Towards a neurological explanation?
Impulses from sensory organs are relayed to the cerebral cortex by the cranial nerves. These nerves enter the brain at subcortical levels and their incoming sensory messages eventually reach a structure called the 'Thalamus.' The thalamus is responsible, along with the reticular formation and the limbic system for routing this sensory information to the correct part of the cortex for further processing. The thalamus does this by 'exciting' the relevant part of the cortex. For instance, if it were auditory information coming into the brain, the thalamus would 'excite' a part of the left cortex known as 'Wernike's area, which would then process the speech sounds which were directed towards it by the thalamus. In most people this process goes on fluently and effortlessly, but in children with dyspraxia somehow the signal gets jumbled or isn't processed adequately. This could be because the thalamus isn't exciting the cortex sufficiently, or it may be over-exciting it. Even if the signal does get through then it has to be passed to another area called 'Broca's area' where speech production is formed. If Broca's area is acting upon incorrectly processed information, then it's planning and production of speech will be faulty. This is just one isolated example of what can occur.
There is also the problem of hemispheric coordination. The cortex has two hemispheres, left and right, each of which has specialist functions, but which work in an efficient, coordinated manner. Individuals with Dyspraxia do not seem to have both hemispheres operating in this simultaneous, co-ordinated fashion.
Can dyspraxia be treated?
Yes. We believe that Snowdrop's approach to helping the child organise incoming sensory information and helping the child to build attentional and organisational skills is a positive way forward and children have made measurable improvements because of my approach. http://www.snowdropcerebralpalsyandautism.com
Dyspraxia is much more prevalent than one would imagine, affecting up to ten per cent of the population, two per cent experiencing severe dyspraxia. Males are four times more likely to be affected than females. Dyspraxia can be inherited meaning there is a genetic form of the condition, but research suggests it can also be caused by an immaturity of neron developmentetc. It can also co-occur with other neurodevelopmental conditions, which also suggests that it can be caused by brain injury.
Other names for dyspraxia have included 'Developmental Co-ordination Disorder (DCD), Perceptuo-Motor Dysfunction, Motor Learning Difficulties, Minimal Brain Damage and Clumsy Child Syndrome.
What symptoms would a child with dyspraxia display?
Key developmental stages might be delayed, such as. rolling, sitting, standing, walking, and speaking.
May have difficulty in coordinating themselves in order to, hop, jump, or catch or kick a ball although their peers can do so.
The child might have difficulty with the pragmatics of social behaviour, - judging how to behave in company and therefore might have difficulty in making or keeping friendship attachments.
May display difficulty in understanding logistical spatial concepts such as 'in', 'on', 'in front of' and logical relationships such as 'your mother's brother,etc.
May have poor self help skills, being unable to dress, tie laces, fasten buttons, etc without adult help.
Motor execution of movement might be slow and hesitant.
Procedural learning seems to be a problem, skills having to be explicitly taught.
May fall, trip and stumble more frequently than peers.
Games requiring sorting skills, or fine motor co-ordination pose difficulties, consequently writing and artwork is very haphazard.
May display anxiety and lack of attentional skills, leading to distraction.
Has difficulty with memory, following instructions, copying from blackboard etc.
Poor organisational skills.
Towards a neurological explanation?
Impulses from sensory organs are relayed to the cerebral cortex by the cranial nerves. These nerves enter the brain at subcortical levels and their incoming sensory messages eventually reach a structure called the 'Thalamus.' The thalamus is responsible, along with the reticular formation and the limbic system for routing this sensory information to the correct part of the cortex for further processing. The thalamus does this by 'exciting' the relevant part of the cortex. For instance, if it were auditory information coming into the brain, the thalamus would 'excite' a part of the left cortex known as 'Wernike's area, which would then process the speech sounds which were directed towards it by the thalamus. In most people this process goes on fluently and effortlessly, but in children with dyspraxia somehow the signal gets jumbled or isn't processed adequately. This could be because the thalamus isn't exciting the cortex sufficiently, or it may be over-exciting it. Even if the signal does get through then it has to be passed to another area called 'Broca's area' where speech production is formed. If Broca's area is acting upon incorrectly processed information, then it's planning and production of speech will be faulty. This is just one isolated example of what can occur.
There is also the problem of hemispheric coordination. The cortex has two hemispheres, left and right, each of which has specialist functions, but which work in an efficient, coordinated manner. Individuals with Dyspraxia do not seem to have both hemispheres operating in this simultaneous, co-ordinated fashion.
Can dyspraxia be treated?
Yes. We believe that Snowdrop's approach to helping the child organise incoming sensory information and helping the child to build attentional and organisational skills is a positive way forward and children have made measurable improvements because of my approach. http://www.snowdropcerebralpalsyandautism.com
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