This pupil who can’t do a jigsaw puzzle, can’t use scissors or an eraser, and whose notebooks look like crumpled scrap paper isn’t simply clumsy. They’re dyspraxic! Intelligent, curious and receptive, they nevertheless lose a little more self-confidence every day. What if a few adjustments at school and at home were all it took to give these children back the pleasure of going to school?<\/strong><\/p>\n Definition of the disorder<\/strong>.<\/p>\n It’s a neurodevelopmental dysfunction that stops affected children from performing, coordinating and planning intentional movements towards a specific goal. Dyspraxia is defined as a motor coordination disorder. The automation of movements is severely disrupted. It’s neither an intellectual disability nor a motor, visual or hearing impairment.<\/p>\n The psychological and academic impacts.<\/strong><\/p>\n Day to day, the dyspraxic child sadly seems very clumsy. They fall often, break their toys, don’t eat neatly, and can’t manage to tie their shoelaces. They struggle and tire themselves out where their classmates, brothers and sisters learn to click Lego bricks together, swim or ride a bike. At school, learning to write is a slog. Reproducing simple graphic shapes, sharpening a pencil or drawing a straight line are ordeals that use up all their energy. Arithmetic, geometry, reading, spelling, mime and sport are also badly affected. As for the results, they’re never a match for the effort put in. These difficulties get in the way of their independence and give an appearance of immaturity. Anxious and unhappy, the dyspraxic child can develop a depressive state that can lead to isolation. Tough conditions indeed for their self-esteem and self-confidence!<\/p>\n Patience and understanding should be the watchwords of those around them. Alongside occupational therapy, psychomotor therapy, orthoptic follow-up and, if needed, psychotherapy<\/a>, parents and teachers have an essential role to play. When the disorder is severe, the child should be recognised as disabled by the MDPH<\/a> (the French Departmental Disability Office). This allows them to receive support at school (a Personalised Schooling Plan, a dedicated classroom aide\u2026), or even join a specialised unit in the most severe cases. Here are some examples of teaching adjustments and parental guidance tips to support these pupils on the road to independence and personal growth.<\/p>\n “These children are neither lazy nor immature. They didn’t ask for this situation of dependence that they’re living with. They need to be helped, not humiliated.”<\/p>\n Dr Mich\u00e8le MAZEAU, clinician specialising in child neuropsychology.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n This differentiated teaching approach makes learning accessible and offers the pupil support at specific moments. A whole programme aimed at restoring balance and making time spent at school easier!<\/p>\n Improving daily life with a few basic principles:<\/strong><\/p>\n Making reading easier:<\/strong><\/p>\n Working around writing difficulties:<\/strong><\/p>\n Simplifying movements and planning:<\/strong><\/p>\n Helping with awareness of time and space:<\/strong><\/p>\n Supporting their attention and memory:<\/strong><\/p>\n Adapting assessments:<\/strong><\/p>\n They’re dyspraxic, but they’re still a child, with all their carefree spirit, imagination and desire to play. There’s no need to turn every moment into therapy! Beyond the small daily challenges, parents are encouraged to create as many situations of success as possible, positive moments in which their child feels comfortable acting and interacting. Happy children make happy parents!<\/p>\n Encouraging expressive and discovery-based play.<\/strong><\/p>\n It’s time for puppets, dolls and tea sets! Cars, garages and race tracks, but also dress-up and pretend play, are all welcome. Depending on the children’s tastes and age, games consoles and video games can also be beneficial. Theatre, cinema, making videos or taking photos, and various musical activities are all excellent leisure activities for dyspraxic children. Not forgetting cultural outings to the zoo, the museum, castles\u2026 which free the heart and mind!<\/p>\n Setting aside fine motor and coordination activities.<\/strong><\/p>\n Some games and hobbies are best avoided if the child isn’t comfortable with them. Jigsaw puzzles, building sets with a model to copy, sewing, drawing and arts and crafts in general can be sources of frustration for dyspraxic children. As can precision sports, speed sports or balance-based sports. It all depends on their abilities and interests.<\/p>\n Anticipating everyday difficulties.<\/strong><\/p>\n Helping your child also means sparing them frustrating or humiliating situations. The watchword is: anticipation. Once the diagnosis has been made, it’s the parents’ responsibility to inform the people involved in their child’s life, so they can avoid missteps and make things easier for the child with tact and discretion. This applies to mealtimes, where meat should be cut up in advance, or fruit peeled for the child beforehand rather than in front of all their classmates. At nap time or during sport, if the child needs to get undressed or dressed again, the teacher should get into the habit of finding discreet ways to help the child separately from the other pupils. Finally, a few quick, simple techniques should be learned promptly, in partnership with the occupational therapist, so the child can go to the toilet without dreading the moment they have to get dressed again.<\/p>\n With the support of the family and everyone involved in the young dyspraxic child’s life, the disability becomes easier to live with and self-confidence is considerably restored. The range of possibilities opens up wide!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Dyspraxia: Specific Adjustments at School Really Make the Grade! This […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":345732,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[335,341,343],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-345731","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-parental-guidance","category-psychology","category-academic-support"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ora-visio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/345731","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ora-visio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ora-visio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ora-visio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ora-visio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=345731"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ora-visio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/345731\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ora-visio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/345732"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ora-visio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=345731"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ora-visio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=345731"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ora-visio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=345731"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}A reminder on the specific features of dyspraxia<\/h2>\n
Adapting the dyspraxic child’s school life.<\/h2>\n
A few possible classroom adjustment ideas<\/h2>\n
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Adapting at home is a win-win!<\/h2>\n