TEACHING THE CHILD WITH DYSPRAXIA
bottom of page | problems show in | what will
help | teacher helps
home page
WHAT IS DEVELOPMENTAL DYSPRAXIA?
Developmental Dyspraxia (DD) is a neurologically based impairment or
immaturity of the organisation of movement. Associated with this may be problems of
language, perception and thought. Affected children have a normal intelligence for
their age but may have difficulty in both processing information and in communicating what
they know or understand. It affects each child differently, therefore each child's
difficulties are unique to him/her.
Problems may show in:-
- Poor writing and drawing abilities.
- Fine and/or gross motor skills- dislikes games, Physical Education, ball activities and
playing outside.
- Messy eating and drinking.
- Slow or poor at dressing.
- Slow learning e.g. to ride a bike.
- Very distractible.
- Falls and bumps into things a lot -- bruises on legs.
- May be disruptive in the classroom.
- Difficulty standing on one leg, hopping or jumping.
- Difficulty copying text from book or blackboard.
- Sequencing, affecting most areas of development.
- Thought; with a normal intelligence, these children may have difficulty in planning and
organising thoughts.
- Language skills, word recall, communication difficulties. Language may be impaired or
slow to develop.
- Following instructions.
- Social skills.
- Emotional immaturity.
|
WHAT WILL HELP?
Reading relevant material will help you gain a deeper understanding -- many of the
difficulties you encounter with the individual child can be directly accounted for by
relating it to the information. With this understanding you can work out the most
appropriate approach to teaching the child.
- A difficulty of recalling stored information is a difficulty of process, not of
memory nor of laziness. He would if he could, but he -- sometimes -- can't and learning
takes 20 times the normal effort.
- Information learned may not be reliably recalled -- for neurological reasons.
- Instructions may need to be broken down and simplified. Impaired sequence can affect
every area of development -- spelling, writing, maths, gross and fine motor skills,
following instructions, rules to games.
- Patience and a multi-sensory approach will help.
- Try gently repeating or leading the memory until previous learning can be
recalled. A rhythmical, phonological approach to reading, writing, maths, etc., helps.
- Self-esteem is constantly at risk.
- Brain Gym exercises, sensory-motor exercises, and mind-mapping may all help.
- Try to ensure that expectations are communicated to the child clearly and
concisely and are understood. You may need to tactfully lower your expectations, e.g. give
the child less homework, enabling him to succeed.
- Try to give the child a predictable routine, firm guidelines. Sudden changes in
routines can cause major problems for the child with Dyspraxia
- Explain the limits simply, ensure that they are constant and that the child has
understood, and be prepared to repeat yourself calmly
What the teacher can do:-
- Make allowances, lower expectations in spite of child seeming bright enough.
- Allow more time.
- Adjust quantity of work.
- Give gentle reminders.
- Good teaching practices win every time.
- Listen to parent, who knows this child better than anyone ever will.
- Break tasks down into more manageable parts - simplify!
- Don't assume the child has understood.
- Give single instructions rather than a string because ...
If you treat the child the same as the others, his failure rate will be immeasurably
higher than it needs to be. He knows that he is not the same; a higher failure rate
means a very much lower self esteem, etc., etc. |
top of page | problems show in | what will
help | teacher helps
home page