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10 Dyspraxia
Dyspraxia
Dyspraxia is a term used to describe the difficulty pupils and adults have when they struggle to plan and organise their movements. It is sometimes used interchangeably with the term developmental coordination disorder (DCD). This is because dyspraxia itself isn’t a formally recognised medical diagnosis, whereas DCD is.
Teaching tip
Teaching pupils to ask for help when they don’t understand is a really helpful strategy.
Taking it further
Often, pupils with dyspraxia don’t generalise learning from one task to another. This means you can’t assume they will understand an activity because it’s similar to one they did previously. Sometimes, they need instructions from the beginning each time. Despite frequent misuse of the term, dyspraxia is much more than just a little clumsiness. It is expected that those with dyspraxia would have difficulties with thinking of and organising their ideas rather than just doing them. In fact, there are three components of dyspraxia. 1. Ideation. Ideation means coming up with an idea or having the idea of what to do. For example, if you have a box of LEGO®, you need to think of what you want to build. 2. Planning. Planning is the ability to figure out how to do the idea, including organising the steps and movements of an activity. To build a house with LEGO®, you need to decide where and in which order to put the bricks. 3. Doing. Doing is the part where your body moves. With LEGO®, this includes pressing the bricks together and using the right amount of pressure. Pupils may have difficulty with ideation, planning or both, and you need to consider which of these they are finding challenging. Idea 50 discusses ideation and Ideas 51 and 52 give strategies for planning. Pupils experience the most difficulty when they are learning a new task, especially complex tasks so they will need more support, time and practice initially to learn something new.
