Dyspraxia symptoms can vary significantly from child to child. In this disease, a child’s motor skills and sometimes verbal skills do not develop properly, leading the child to appear clumsy and slow. However, this is NOT mental retardation. It is a defect of the motor neurons and your child was likely born with it.
It’s not known if it’s genetic or due to some injury in the womb, but it usually becomes apparent around the time your child is learning to walk. Your child may take longer to walk, crawl, and become toilet trained than other children. Your child may also have trouble learning to speak. In fact, these are some of the first symptoms you’ll see, and they indicate a trip to the doctor is necessary for a definite diagnosis.
As your child gets older, he may find it difficult to play with other children. He may have trouble writing or concentrating at school, and physical education class will be a problem, as he likely won’t be able to keep up in any sports games that are being played. It’s really at school that this condition starts to truly interfere with the child’s quality of life.
Some common dysphraxia symptoms at school are a lack of physical coordination. The child won’t perform well in playground activities like running, jumping, skipping, catching, or kicking the ball. He will feel shy because of this, in most cases. He may also develop a feeling of inferiority, as he can’t keep up with the other children.
Painting and cutting will be difficult, as will coloring, so art class will be hard for him. He may scribble or doodle a lot, but most of it won’t make much sense to outside observers. Even climbing stairs, getting dressed, and bathing may be hard for them, depending on the severity of the disease. The severity does vary from child to child.
A child who is suffering from dysphraxia symptoms will not have the grip necessary to hold objects firmly in their hand, and they will also fall over lot, so they may get the reputation of being clumsy. They may also have poor concentration skills, finding it difficult to concentrate on any one thing for more than a minute or so. Even copying letters from the chalk board may be a challenge. So, if your child is suffering from any of these symptoms, you should take him to a doctor right away, so occupational therapy can begin.
