Info about ~ Dyspraxia

” There may have been a glitch of some kind (illness, slight trauma, momentary lack of oxygen, etc.) at the crucial developmental time or at birth which caused damage to some cells. It may be that the growth of the dendrites or the connections - synapses and neurotransmitters - which connect the cells is at fault. It may be a matter of which cells, and how many, failed to grow and develop enough to reach their destination at the right time before birth. It often co-exists with other disorders (e.g. mild Cerebral Palsy, Dyslexia, Attention Deficit Disorder, etc.) This fact also makes diagnosis difficult, as symptoms intermingle or are shared by more than one disorder”

This is it - the fundamental explanation of my son’s problems. And the reason why I believe the issues show up in so many areas and why he’s not classicly any one thing. It seems like all the “puzzle kids” on this board have this to some degree or another. Our first therapy was OT for “mild motor planning” .

BTW- last night I was telling ds a story of something that happened during the day. He repeated it verbatim. I asked him , in a joking way, why he was telling me the same story I just told him. He responded “because that’s how I’ll remember it forever!”

Its just a matter of figuring out how to use your compensatory strengths sometimes.

My son has dyspraxia. He also was a difficult delivery and had episodes of hypoxia.

I was talking to someone the other day who does testing (mostly for autistic) to find biological causes of these types of disorders. She looks at blood samples, urine and even hair samples. She looks for mercury and other metals (as dad has described,) but also looks at nutritional needs and I guess a few other things.

I described my son. I told her about the traumatic birth, the difficulty with milk, the ear infections, the in and out attention.

She said, ” With some of these kids it is related to a need to have protein every few hours or else they experience hypogycemeia. Their attention fades in and out with their blood sugar levels.” I nearly fell off my chair because this has to be my son’s problem. I have always called him hypoglycemic and recently thanks to Beth’s suggestion have added more protein, but I never put these two things together. I didn’t tell this woman my suspicion she just threw it out there as something she sees in kids with in and out attention.

She only sees autistic spectrum kids. She gave me the name of a doctor who will do testing to assess for physiological causes for attention deficits. And what do you know, he is in my insurance plan.
I have to fill out a form before he will see us. Once they get my form back they will decide if they can help.

I want to have him assessed for milk allergies and see how severe his hypoglycemia truely is.

My son’s delivery was so-so, but the interesting part is that I had the chicken pox when he was born, and he contracted it 2 weeks later. I have always suspected this trauma caused mild neurological damage …

I have always had “low blood sugar” although its never been diagnosed as such.. I’m one of those people that gets shaky if I don’t eat properly and/or frequently. I’ve learned to carry food, and anticipate the problem so its not a big deal. I’ve long recognized that my son’s Jekyl and Hyde behavior is food related. He will only become out of control, angry, irrational , difficult to play with if he is hungry. But he doesn’t even know he’s hungry. Give him a cheese stick and its like he’s a completely different person. He’s starting to recognize this in himself which is great b/c then hopefully I won’t have to worry about inappropriate behaviors brought on by hunger.

We do have a family history of milk intolerance/allergies, but not in our immediate family. But maybe its lurking there with my son undetected.

We’ve also added protein to his breakfast, and I carry balance bars for him as as an after school snack. I’m hoping it will improve his attention and mood.

Keep us posted on what you learn!

In the USA the “official name” is developmental coordination disorder. A good (though very technical) book dealing with causes, subtypes, treatments and long-term outcomes is “Developmental Coordination Disorder” edited by Sharon Cermak and Dawne Larkin.

Andrea

I need to get that book! Thanks for sharing this!!! My next step is further research and this info helps. :-)

Wow!!!! When my son was much younger he used to repeat just about everything he heard like an echo. And although that’s typical for preschoolers, he did it for much longer, and did it more often, than was typical (he had teachers concerned about this). Back then it seemed like an autistic trait, but what you’re saying here about it used as a langauge memorization technique makes a lot of sense. Especially since my son has such difficulty memorizing language and also at least one very subtle articulation difficulty.

My son’s much more quiet now. He has learned to not “repeat” so much however he’s always been intrigued with the nuances in language and will “hook on” to words or sayings. The latest one, which I’m very tired of hearing, is “ashamed.” He’s always saying things like, “You should be ashamed of yourself” or telling us the dog should be ashamed of herself. Not for any particular reason, but just to say it. I think he likes the sound of certain things. (Or thinks it’s humorous? He loves humor and word play).

Teaching him to create mental pictures of names and words has helped a little. Also I constantly force him to talk — I always ask him questions (he’d sit for hours without speaking if I let him!!!!). But I may start encouraging him to repeat information he’s trying to remember if he feels it may help. Karen, I think it’s great your son realizes this helps him memorize things. I have a feeling my son may have been doing this unconsciously.

I’m always suprised by what I learn from all of you here!
Thanks for sharing!!! :-)

P.s. Another thing we do a little of every night at bedtime is “Language Wise” (by the author of PG). The book has lots of language “games.” For anyone whose child has some language issues it’s a useful book.

How nice to find any type of doctor who may help on your insurance!

After reading the information about dyspraxia I’m starting to think my son really may be a good candidate for vision therapy.
Out of all the different things I’ve looked at, a praxis problem does seem very likely. Also, I definitely know my son is tactile defensive (that’s a certain!) and that in itself with other things that appear to be going on seem like a strong idication of further motor issues.

By the way, in regard to diet, most American kids do consume way too many carbs. So concentrating on decreasing carbs and increasing protein is always a good idea.

You might also want to go to a website www.drstordy.org and read about her book and research on essential fatty acids and brain development and their connection to dyspraxia, dyslexia and ADHD.

I spent some time reading through some sites online and saw variations of my son. While he is not severe enough to be diagnosed, and did not exhibit any symptoms before preschool age (sat, crawled, and walked early), I found it interesting that all of his issues seemed to be subsumed under this diagnosis. I have wondered for some time if there wasn’t some overriding disorder because it seemed odd to me that one child could have so many different problems. The other interesting thing is that improving his coordination has had big payoffs in attention and ability to learn. The odd thing about my son is that he didn’t seem uncoordinated in the way they talk about it but still it was amazing what he could not do when we had him evaluated.

Beth

Praxis is kind of interesting. I did find some more books online and plan to try and get a hold of some of them.

My son doesn’t entirely fit the description either, but a good majority of traits seem to apply.

I’m wondering if it’s not about what a child can or cannot do, but how much effort did it take to learn. I can’t recall the exact words the OT used to explain something kind of similar (and I may be mixing up ideas here so bear with me) But she said, in response to a description of my son having slower “timing,” is that it sounded like he has learned to use more areas of the brain than necessary to process certain things. This ends up slowing down thinking and response (due to inefficiency). To be honest I’m not quite sure I understand this. And in retrospect, I’m not sure it makes sense, but I’m really curious to know more about it (like what areas of the brain? How would one do this? If it’s neurological aren’t other areas of the brain compensating for damaged or undeveloped sections?… I’m lost!). I wish I had taken notes during the conversation and asked more specific questions. Unfortunately, I had two kids in the background clamoring for dinner. :-(

Your comments about the brain remind me of the literature showing that dyslexic kids - before intervention — process language in a different (broader?) area than normal readers.

Beth,

When I took my son to the sensory integration occupational therapist she told me the first think to do to deal with his dyspraxia and related si issues was interactive metronome.

She was right. I have seen my son become a better learner since his motor issues were improved through IM. He turned around during his piano class last week with a big smile. He said, “I am doing really well, right mom.” He doesn’t even practice half as much as he should. He is already using his left and right and together to play.

Linda,

That’s great. My son was too severe to benefit from IM without additional therapy. He scored 350 ms off beat on the first pretest we did!!!! Doing Neuronet frist was really the right decision. But IM has really helped him and made the Neuronet tasks he was stuck on easier.

I would like to try piano again too. Maybe next summer.

Beth

My Neuronet therapist makes a big deal about timing—doing lower level tasks fast and automatically enough. The idea I think is that slower processing indicates that extra brain power is being exerted which is taking away from higher level cognitive tasks. Think of reading—if you spend all your energy decoding, you don’t have cognitive resources left to comprehend. My son can decode Harry Potter but after he reads it, he asks me to reread it!!!

Beth

It helps that he likes piano and likes his teacher. She is very accepting and the lessons are very calm and free of stress. His dad is taking lessons too and he idolizes his dad so this is another motivator. They bond over the piano.

This has been an especially worthwhile activity because he initially failed at piano. Now he knows he can be successful.

My son took piano lessons when he was 4 and 5 years old. He had two different wonderful teachers and then we moved. I knew at the time instinctively that there more issues than just speech (which had been identified) and I thought it was my contribution to the “cause”. And I do think it helped. By the time I found a piano teacher (my daughter still takes lessons), his learning problems demanded our attention. Our IM therapist wanted me to have him take last summer but I felt like there were still too many academic issues to deal with. There may always be but I thought maybe I’d give it a try again next summer when we have more time.

Ironically, he was the child who wanted to take lessons. My daughter initially elected to take ballet. She is quite good now—so good that there couldn’t be any competition.

Beth

Oddly, my son is remarkably good at piano and this is something he hasn’t had to put as much effort in (I can’t help but wonder how his brain is processing this as oppossed to other things).

He started a little over a month ago. He had taken lessons when he was 5 (for about 6 months) and learned very quickly. He learned to recognize notes quickly and immediately understood the concept of “stepping” and “skipping” his fingers across the keys according to the location of the written notes on the page.

Although he’s not obsessed with it like he was when he was 5, he will often sit down and practice without me even asking him. And sometimes I have to tell him that he’s practiced enough and needs to move on to something else. With my older child, I never had this situation. She never actually would “choose” to play piano over other activities.

Also, he recently started writing music and it’s really fascinating to watch him do this. Almost every day during school break he has written a new song. They aren’t very long and he hasn’t added beats per measure or set it up entirely correct (the notes are correct but timing isn’t included — timing! Wouldn’t you know it!!!). He just adds the timing as he plays. Some of the music is really nice.

It’s kind of amazing to me that someone who struggles so much with learning, speaking and making choises can do so well in this.