Dyspraxia is still a bit the ‘new kid on the block’ as far as learning differences are concerned, and if you don’t know what it is, and the extent of the difficulties it can cause, you can end up being a little less than sympathetic.
In school, a common way dyspraxia shows itself as a problem is when pupils/students present as chaotic and disorganised (although it should be noted that not all disorganised pupils are dyspraxic).
Chaotic? or interesting?
Disorganised students often get frustrated. Although they have good intentions, they forget to do their homework, or do it and forget to hand it in; when work is done, it often looks messy; they often don’t have their kit in the right place; they often end up ‘double-booked’ with commitments and appointments, and then get confused as to what they should do first. When asked to do one thing, they will forget other things. This is not because they are delibrately trying to get out of things or be annoying (although it might look like that); they just genuinely forget things, or cannot organise themselves to actually do what they intend to do.
For parents, there is often frustration too – we want our children to be independent and self-sufficient, but this person can’t organise themselves to make a sandwich without turning the kitchen into a bomb-site and you’re forever replacing lost or broken items.
So, it’s often easier just to organise him/her yourself. Only it’s still exhausting, because you end up following up behind them for everything, which frequently isn’t actually appreciated by the child.
So what is dyspraxia? In fact, the above vignettes only give some of the most obvious indicators. A definition might be “an impairment or immaturity in the organisation of movement” (Cooley, 2000), but this also does little to tell us any more about what it’s like to be dyspraxic – it may present as a whole spectrum of difficulties, not just in apparent physical movements, but also in the organisation of ideas, and turning planned actions into real ones.
The Learning Support Department will be writing an information page on dyspraxia, and some hints on how to get organised, on this blog – but in the meantime, we’ve added some useful links to dyspraxia websites (see above right), and we’re going to recommend a book. It’s called “Caged in Chaos”, and was written by Victoria Biggs when she was 16. She herself is dyspraxic, and wrote the book for dyspraxic and disorganised adolescents (and anyone else who comes into contact with them) – loads of information, advice, hints and tips, including revision/exam strategies. It gives a really readable and amusing portrait of what it is like to be dyspraxic.
“Anything that requires coordination of movement or thought, even a simple thing that many take for granted, causes me difficulties throughout my day. It does become very frustrating, because I know what I want to do, but my body sometimes lets me down”
Matthew, 14
From Biggs, V. (2005) Caged in Chaos, Jessica Kingsley Books,
ISBN-13: 978-1843103479
pics from by activefree and karindalziel – both on Fickr Creative Commons
Tags: dyspraxia
