WHAT IS DYSPRAXIA?
Dyspraxia is a complex disorder in which people lack coordination of their motor activities, speech, judgment, body balance, and movement. In these individuals, the various cognitive abilities such as memory, perception, thought processes are often affected, although intelligence remains intact. In addition, the body’s nervous system and immune system suffer major setbacks. Dyspraxia is widely known as a developmental coordination disorder. Diagnosis is made by testing for symptoms of dyspraxia. Adults and children with dyspraxia have great difficulty carrying out normal daily functions.
CAUSES
We have only assumed the causes of dyspraxia as researchers have been unable to identify anything with confirmation. The main cause of this disorder is believed to be improper development of motor neurons in babies because the proper connections are not formed and therefore messages from the brain are not transmitted to the muscles. This theory explains the lack of coordination of motor skills. Again, due to the inability of neural messages to be transmitted correctly, cognitive behavior is affected. Therefore, children can be born with dyspraxia. This phenomenon can be caused by:
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Premature birth
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Low body weight during childbirth.
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genetic causes
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Neglect of the pregnant mother: consumption of alcohol or drugs by the mother during the pregnancy. Etc
However, in the case of adults, sudden onsets of dyspraxia symptoms may be due to severe head injuries or blows to the head or are the same from birth. According to experts, 10 percent of people suffer from mild symptoms of dyspraxia, although only 2 percent are severely affected by it.
DYSPRAXIA SYMPTOMS
Babies: The signs and symptoms of dyspraxia can be noticed in a child from very early stages. Some of the symptoms of dyspraxia in babies are:
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The child may not reach normal developmental stages in the normal amount of time, i.e. the baby may take longer than expected to learn to roll over, crawl, sit up, stand, walk, potty train , etc.
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The child’s speech is extremely incoherent, the child’s speech takes longer to develop than normal.
Children– The symptoms of dyspraxia in children are clearly visible and cause persistent problems in their childhood. Some of them are listed below:
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Children affected by dyspraxia have very messy handwriting and find it difficult to use things like scissors, knives, colored pens, etc. Also, they are unable to perform subtle tasks like tying shoelaces, buttoning shirts, using forks to eat, climbing stairs, etc.
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They are poor at playground activities due to their poor motor coordination skills and therefore find it difficult to socialize with children of the same age group. At school, they cannot participate in physical education activities.
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They often have trouble concentrating, learning, and memorizing, as they have very poor working memory and a very short attention span. Although the intelligence of a child is not affected by this disorder.
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They are very hyperactive and have an impaired sense of direction.
Adults: Most dyspraxic adults have had the disorder since childhood, so most symptoms are similar.
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They cannot differentiate between left and right.
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They have impaired social skills and are generally loners.
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They have a very poor sense of time.
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They tend to be very clumsy and tend to bump into others by accident.
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They usually can’t solve puzzles.
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They find it difficult to control their speech. For the most part, the speech of such individuals is poorly developed. This is generally called developmental verbal dyspraxia.
DYSPRAXIA TREATMENT
There are no such treatments for this disorder; however, with practice individuals can improve. In general, early diagnosis of dyspraxia symptoms is crucial in the development and support of various therapies to be implemented in early stages to deal with these disorders.
