Our Son’s Dyspraxia
“...invisibly, differently-abled”
Dyspraxia, Developmental Coordination Disorder, DCD…It’s Complicated
For something that in theory affects such a significant number of our young population (approx. 6-10% of all children), recognition and understanding of dypraxia/DCD (Developmental Co-ordination Disorder) remains relatively elusive. Dyspraxia is a neurodevelopmental condition that affects gross and fine motor skills, motor planning, coordination, organization pathways and so much more. Explaining my son’s obscure condition(s) always leaves me at a loss for words because the explanation is always so…involved and always so…complicated - particularly in an academic setting. So few people know about it - including our trusted educators, clinicians and professionals we heavily rely on - and even fewer people who truly understand it. What adds to the confusion is that every dyspraxic person is different. There is such a wide range of symptoms and how it affects people, how it manifests, and how it mimics and overlaps other conditions, that even it’s diagonosis can be…complicated.
Photo Credit: Mehdi Messrro
“Having an invisible, lesser known and little understood part of this disability adds additional challenges in all aspects of his day to day life.”
Our Son’s Dyspraxia and Its More Invisible Side - A Quick Glance
Usually, there’s a strong association and focus on the gross and fine motor control and co-ordination aspect of dyspraxia when discussing and diagnosing it. For my son, unfortunately, it’s the more invisible elements of DCD that affect him: his sequencing abilities, processing speed, difficulty with motor planning, and working memory, that predominantly affects him at home, in social settings, and at school.
One thing is clear, Dyspraxia does not affect intelligence, but the pathways to learning, understanding, and problem solving appears to utilize so much more working memory, mental energy and focus. This means that the automaticity for some task appears to be absent at times and needs to be learned. To use a coding analogy, my son’s dyspraxic brain uses an entirely different coding software platform, and like every new program, EVERY SINGLE LINE OF CODE needs to be written, and written precisely and concisely. If the code is too long and not clear, it taxes the system’s working memory (the RAM). If code is missing, the program does not execute. If code instructions are not written exactly, the program will perform differently or get stuck in an error loop. Having an invisible, lesser known and little understood part of this disability adds additional challenges in all aspects of his day to day life – making what he is able to overcome incredibly remarkable.
What further complicates matters for my son is the seemingly random onset of his dyspraxia. It adds confusion to outsiders, who see a bright, “normal” boy, who on some days is capable of doing something perfectly, and on other days, not know how to even begin. Frustratingly, the unpredictability of his dyspraxic onsets can even occur from one moment to the next.
The Gift of A Diagnosis
Dyspraxia has comorbidity with Dyslexia, Dyscalculia, motor stereotypies and other conditions. Meaning, if you, or your child, or someone else has dyspraxia, there’s a likelihood that you can have one (or more) of these additional disorders. Our son just happened to win the jackpot of obscure neuro-biological conditions.
Having a diagnosis for DCD has been immeasurable in helping our understanding of our son, teaching us to be more patient, to be more empathetic, and willing to find different ways to communicate and problem solve with him. We’ve learned to savour the small victories and applaud them, knowing he has worked 10x harder mentally to achieve what the average person does so easily, and takes for granted. It’s allowed us to recognize we have a smart little cookie who standardized teaching and testing will fail to show how capable he is and how much he truly knows, and also how hard we will have to advocate for him. The most important gift of this diagnosis is the understanding that on days when my child’s memory and brain fail to co-operate, is to know he is not doing it on purpose - that he needs an abundance of love, support and reassurance, and to remember that he is (in our case) invisibly, differently-abled.