Childhood Dyspraxia: Causes Complications Prevention Natural Treatment
Childhood Dyspraxia: Causes Complications is neurological disorder that children develop a early age, so discover here a wonderful treatment.
If you need health advice or want to meet a doctor just CALL.
To place an order or know how and where we ship, you can e-mail us.
To discover more African recipes or how to treat diseases naturally, please Click.
Childhood Dyspraxia: Causes Complications Prevention Natural Treatment
Dyspraxia definition
Dyspraxia is a neurological disorder that affects an individual’s ability to plan and process motor tasks.
People (children) with dyspraxia always have language problems, and sometimes a degree of difficulty with thought and perception. Dyspraxia, however, does not affect the person’s intelligence, although it can cause learning problems in children.
Developmental dyspraxia is an immaturity of the organization of movement. The brain does not process information in a way that allows for a full transmission of neural messages.
A person with dyspraxia finds it difficult to plan what to do, and how to do it.
A person with dyspraxia has problems with movement, coordination, judgment, processing, memory, and some other cognitive skills. Dyspraxia also affects the body’s immune and nervous systems.
Dyspraxia is also known as motor learning difficulties, perceptuo-motor dysfunction, and developmental coordination disorder (DCD). The terms “minimal brain damage” and “clumsy child syndrome” are no longer used.
Findings
According to the National Center for Learning Disabilities, individuals with dyspraxia have difficulties in planning and completing fine and gross motor tasks. This can range from simple motor movements, such as waving goodbye, to more complex ones like sequencing steps to brush one’s teeth.
The National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke Trusted Source (NINDS) describes people with dyspraxia as being “out of sync” with their environment.
Experts say that about 10 percent of people have some degree of dyspraxia, while approximately 2 percent have it severely. Among 5 children with evident dyspraxia, four are boys, although there is some debate as to whether dyspraxia might be under-diagnosed in girls.
According to the National Health Service, United Kingdom, many children with dyspraxia also have attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).
Signs
Symptoms tend to vary depending on the age of the individual. Later, we will look at each age group in more detail. Some of the general symptoms of dyspraxia include:
- poor balance
- poor posture
- fatigue
- clumsiness
- differences in speech
- perception problems
- poor hand-eye coordination
Signs
Dyspraxia symptoms may vary depending on age. With that in mind, we will look at each age individually. Not every individual will have all of the symptoms outlined below:
Very early childhood
The child may take longer than other children to:
-Sit.
-Crawl – the Dyspraxia Foundation says that many never go through the crawling stage.
-Walk.
-Speak – according to the Children’s Hospital at West mead, Australia, the child may be slower in answering questions, find it hard to make sounds, or repeat sequences of sounds or words; they may also have difficulty in sustaining normal intonation patterns, have a very limited automatic vocabulary, speak more slowly than other children, and use fewer words with more pauses.
-Stand.
-Become potty trained (get out of diapers).
-Build up vocabulary.
Early childhood
Tying shoelaces can be a difficult task for children suffering with dyspraxia. Later on, the following difficulties may become apparent:
- Problems performing subtle movements, such as tying shoelaces, doing up buttons and zips, using cutlery, and handwriting.
- Many will have difficulties getting dressed.
- Difficulties carrying out playground movements, such as jumping, playing hopscotch, catching a ball, kicking a ball, hopping, and skipping.
- Problems with classroom movements, such as using scissors, coloring, drawing, playing jigsaw games.
- Inability processing thoughts.
- Difficulties with concentration. Children with dyspraxia commonly find it hard to focus on one thing for long.
- The child finds it harder than other kids to join in playground games.
- The child will fidget more than other children.
- Some find it hard to go up and down stairs.
- A higher tendency to bump into things, to fall over, and to drop things.
- Difficulty in learning new skills – while other children may do this automatically, a child with dyspraxia takes longer. Encouragement and practice help enormously.
- Writing stories can be much more challenging for a child with dyspraxia, as can copying from a blackboard.
The following are also common at pre-school age:
- Finds it hard to keep friends.
- Behavior when in the company of others may seem unusual.
- Hesitates in most actions, seems slow.
- Does not hold a pencil with a good grip.
- Such concepts as ‘in’, ‘out’, ‘in front of’ are hard to handle automatically.
Later on in childhood
- Many of the challenges listed above do not improve or only improve slightly.
- Tries to avoid sports.
- Learns well on a one-on-one basis, but nowhere near as well in class with other children around.
- Reacts to all stimuli equally (not filtering out irrelevant stimuli automatically)
- Mathematics and writing are difficult.
- Spends a long time getting writing done.
- Does not follow instructions.
- Does not remember instructions.
- Is badly organized.
Causes of dyspraxia
Scientists do not know what causes dyspraxia. Experts believe the person’s nerve cells that control muscles (motor neurons) are not developing correctly. If motor neurons cannot form proper connections, for whatever reason, the brain will take much longer to process data.
Experts at the Disability and Dyslexia Service at the Queen Mary University of London, U.K., say that studies suggest dyspraxia may be caused by an immaturity of neuron development in the brain, rather than any specific brain damage.
A report from the University of Hull in England says that dyspraxia is “probably hereditary: several genes have been implicated. Often, there are many members within a family who are similarly affected.”
Treatments for dyspraxia
Although dyspraxia is not curable, with treatment, the individual can improve. However, the earlier a child is diagnosed, the better their prognosis will be. The following specialists most commonly treat people with dyspraxia:
Occupational therapy
An occupational therapist will evaluate how the child manages with everyday functions both at home and at school. They will then help the child develop skills specific to daily activities which they find difficult.
Speech and language therapy
The speech-language pathologist will conduct an assessment of the child’s speech, and then implement a treatment plan to help them to communicate more effectively.
Perceptual motor training
This involves improving the child’s language, visual, movement, and auditory skills. The individual is set a series of tasks that gradually become more advanced – the aim is to challenge the child so that they improve, but not so much that it becomes frustrating or stressful.
Equine therapy for dyspraxia
In a study published in the Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine, a team of Irish, British, and Swedish researchers evaluated the effects of equine therapy (therapeutic horse-riding) on a group of 40 children aged 6-15 years with dyspraxia.
The children participated in six horse-riding sessions lasting 30 minutes each, as well as two 30-minute audiovisual screening sessions.
They found that riding therapy stimulated and improved the participants’ cognition, mood, and gait parameters. The authors added that “the data also pointed to the potential value of an audiovisual approach to equine therapy.”
Active Play
Experts say that active play any play that involves physical activity – which can be outdoors or inside the home, helps improve motor activity. Play is a way children learn about the environment and about themselves, and particularly for children aged 3-5; it is a crucial part of their learning.
Active play is where a very young child’s physical and emotional learning, their development of language, their special awareness, the development of what their senses are, all come together.
The more children are involved in active play, the better they will become at interacting with other children successfully.
