Dyspraxia is a sensorimotor condition that makes it difficult for the brain and the parts responsible for muscle movement to coordinate (Macintyre, 2015). Most people like to assume that it is a sign low intelligence or muscle weakness. This is false. Those with dyspraxia tend to look clumsy as they struggle with posture and balance. Motor skills such as jumping and walking can be affected. Other fine motor skills such as hand movements when one is writing and tongue movements when one is talking can be affected too. Psychologically, the social skills of a child with Dyspraxia tend to be affected. Children with this condition tend to exhibit immature behavior even though their intelligence may be above average. There are different kinds of Dyspraxia depending on the affected kind of movement. These categories are outlined below:
Ideomotor dyspraxia: single step motor tasks like waving and combing the hair become affected.
Ideational dyspraxia: combines sequences of movements such as making the bed or brushing one’s teeth are made hard.
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Oromotor dyspraxia: This affects one’s speech. One’s ability to coordinate the muscles needed to pronounce works is affected. This results in slurred speech.
Constructional dyspraxia: This makes it difficult for one to understand the relationships between space objects. For instance, using Legos to build structures or even copying geometric drawings becomes difficult.
Characteristics and Origin of Dyspraxia
Scientifically, the source or cause of dyspraxia has not been established yet. Most researchers like to assume that genetics play a vital role in bringing about the condition while some think that it arises when nerve cells that enable the communication between muscles and the brain have a problem. To add to this, they also believe that premature birth or abnormal births such as low birth weights or children born by women that take alcohol while they are pregnant have higher chances of having dyspraxia.
` The condition tends to affect children more severely than other people. The symptoms of this condition show early when the child is a baby and become severe as the child grows. Babies with dyspraxia tend to have difficulties when feeding and are irritable most of the times. Their development milestones such as learning to walk and talk tend to come late. The early stages of the condition in a child start to show when a child gets problems performing subtle movement such as using cutlery, tying shoelaces, and handwriting (Langham, 2015) .
Different approaches to Treating Dyspraxia
In case one is diagnosed with dyspraxia, he can receive treatment that can help mitigate the condition (Miller, 2015). However, there is no cure for dyspraxia. There are only different treatment techniques that help to ease the problem. All treatment techniques work best if the condition is discovered early enough. The treatment diagnoses are offered by different kind of specialties as discussed below:
Occupational Therapy
The therapist evaluates the child’s abilities to run daily activities at home and in school. It is effective in helping the child to develop skills that he will apply on a daily basis.
Speech and Language Therapy
The pathologist helps assess the child’s ability to talk well. He then recommends a therapy program to help the child to communicate more effectively.
Perceptual Motor Training
This treatment helps to improve the movement ability, visual ability, and auditory skills of the child. The goal of this is to help the child improve as a whole. However, it is done slowly so that it does not frustrate the child.
Equine Therapy
This therapy helps to stimulate and improve the cognitive and gait parameters of the child. The treatment is also effective in improving the audiovisual capability of the child.
Challenges underlying the Treatment of Dyspraxia
Finding a permanent cure for dyspraxia, just like many other sensorimotor conditions, has proved to be quite difficult. Those affected have no other option but to go through the different therapy techniques outlined above. However, these therapy techniques tend to be expensive. Most affected individuals at times miss their therapy sessions because of how expensive they can get.
References
Langham, R. Y. (2015). Dyspraxia Symptoms in Teenagers. Pieejams: http://www. livestrong. com/article/183208-dyspraxia-symptoms-teenagers/ Skatīts , 20 , 2015.
Macintyre, C. (2015). Dyspraxia in the early years: Identifying and supporting children with movement difficulties . Routledge.
Miller, N. (2015). Dyspraxia and its Management (Psychology Revivals) . Psychology Press.
