Loss of the Dyspraxia Foundation UK
April 20th, 2024
My heart breaks.
Today, the Dyspraxia Foundation in the UK announced their closure and I am beyond devastated.
As a parent of a “fantastic dyspraxic child”, I feel like my lifeline of institutional knowledge, the voice of advocacy, and validation for what my child lives, breathes, experiences, and endures as a neurodivergent child living with dyspraxia, was stripped away today.
I feel vulnerable and alone as a parent, knowing that the fight for raising dyspraxia awareness will be so much harder to shoulder without the long established legacy of this foundation.
Photo Credit: Jane Boyd & ECE Workshops
With almost 40 years of service, the Dyspraxia Foundation in the UK worked to build awareness, raise a community, and help provide life-giving support and recognition to those in need. Thank you SO much, from the bottom of our hearts. In some ways, by existing, it carved out space to let the world know that dyspraxia was very real - that it was more than just motor planning and function. In many ways, because dyspraxia is not recognized in the same capacity as it’s synonmous counterpart - Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD) - The foundation’s existence, in many ways, was more imperative.
As a parent (Athough I’m only 3 years into this journey), I could always take comfort and point to the Dyspraxia Foundation and tell educators and medical professionals that what my child has is invisible, but no less real. That my son is a hero that conquers the world every single day because the physical and mental energy it takes to learn, to play, to fit-in, and navigate life and social situations is tremendously taxing - beyond neuro-typical comprehension. I can point to the foundation and feel strong enough to advocate for my child because it conferred the need for dyspraxia support from educators and professionals for nearly 4 decades. With all their years of messaging, I could reassuringly know that if professionals were dismissive, and failed to take my son’s needs seriously, it was their short-comings, and not my child’s disability.
There is such a huge void in awareness for this condition and the totality of it’s impact on everyday living and learning on a person’s life. The confusion and deafness to dyspraxia is compounded more by some of its invisible aspects (executive functioning for example), allowing it to be mistaken for lack of motivation, or aptitude, or being inept. There is little doubt there is a need for more attention and awareness - not less.
I am tearful that an established voice like the Dyspraxia Foundation in the UK can fall silent because dyspraxia, as a disability and cause, is not deemed worthy enough of championing (or funding). There is still so much more work needed. So much advocacy to be done. So much support and research required. Where does this leave our children? Where does this leave the 6% of the world’s population affected by this. How terrifying is it to know that our voice just got a little quieter….
….Maybe It’s time to get a Megaphone.