Writing, cutting, tying shoelaces… Some children have trouble carrying out the simplest activities. Often the underlying problem is dyspraxia, although this developmental disorder is rarely recognized. Attending normal schools becomes a struggle for most of these children.
- Dyspraxia, also known as Clumsy Child Syndrome, is a developmental disorder that affects the locomotor system as well as speaking and perceiving
- Children with dyspraxia perform basic activities such as tying shoelaces or cutting with scissors slowly, awkwardly and inaccurately, have difficulty speaking, and often push, roll over, miss or trip over their own legs
- At the same time, they are usually very intelligent and gifted. They absorb information as quickly as others. They’re just much slower when it comes to processing information
- It is estimated that in Germany there is at least one child with dyspraxia in each school year
- In Poland, this problem may concern up to 6 percent. kids
- More information can be found on the Onet homepage
Author Celine Lauer / The world
“Invisible disability”
The good advice was the worst. Prior to her diagnosis, Saskia Lützinger was constantly receiving clues that could help with her son’s clumsiness. – My favorite was: “Work out with him a little.” But the gymnastics didn’t help that the five-year-old could not do the simplest things, for example, put on a sweater. Lützinger had to practice with him for months, because he kept getting stuck in his clothes and couldn’t get out of it.
The pediatrician finally sent the Wiesbaden family to a social pediatric center. Over there doctors found that the five-year-old was not at all clumsy or not very bright – he suffered from dyspraxia.
Affected people and their families often refer to dyspraxia as an “invisible disability”. In the international statistical classification ICD-10, it falls under the problematic term “limited developmental motor disorder” (UEMF).
Dyspracticists have great difficulty in planning, executing and internalizing (internalizing) both fine and gross motor skills. While other people do certain things automatically, they have to think about each subsequent step. This means that banal activities take much longer for them or end up in failure. They are labeled as clumsy and inattentive because no one suspects that a handicap is behind them.
The developmental disorder is also invisible in other respects: in this country [in Germany – ed.] Hardly attracts attention. While the French institute of health and research, INSERM, has just published a 650-page study on scientific findings and recommendations, the German-Swiss guidelines have been out of date for years.
Dyspraxia is not uncommon in Germany: it is estimated that there is one child with UEMF in each class. Comprehensive advice and care would be useful – also because the developmental disorder is incurable. Instead, seeking help often turns into a long obstacle course.
This is also the case with Saskia Lützinger. When she left the pediatric facility with her son four years ago, she felt relieved at first: she was finally able to correctly name the feeling that there was something wrong with him. But at first she didn’t know what to do with the diagnosis: “I didn’t quite know what it was.” The woman decided to start a blog and a self-help group. As dyspraxia is not only little known and poorly studied, it is also often not taken seriously.
Affected people often notice early that they cannot move properly. For many children, motor milestones are delayed – they begin to sit, crawl and walk much later than their peers. They often perform basic activities slowly, awkwardly, and imprecisely, be it tying a shoelace, blowing their nose or cutting with scissors. Children with verbal dyspraxia have severe speech difficulties due to poor oral motor skills. The sense of body and space is also disturbed – Dyspractic people often push, roll over, miss or trip over their feet.
Further part below the video.
What still looks cute in kindergarten becomes a problem at the latest when school starts. Affected children are illegible, never finish on time and are always last in PE class. “It influences their self-esteem,” sums up the French INSERM, which has evaluated a total of 1400 scientific publications. «The articles also indicate that these children are less physically active, play less and exercise less than their peers; they do less and get a lot of negative feedback ».
Children with dyspraxia are intelligent
Michael Schulte-Markwort is director of the Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics at the University Hospital of Hamburg-Eppendorf. He meets young patients once or twice a week, some of whom have been suffering from undiagnosed dyspraxia for years. Therefore, not only have the doctors marathon behind them, but they have also been enrolled in remedial classes and tutoring or had to change schools – sometimes even several times. “It’s really a drama,” he says. «These kids are sometimes considered fools long enough to make them think about themselves ».
Dyspractic children are usually intelligent, sometimes even very gifted. They absorb information as quickly as others. They’re just much slower when it comes to processing as they need to consciously think and make every move. This, in turn, affects the endurance needed to solve the actual task. “Controlling everything with your head is extremely tiring,” says Saskia Lützinger. The brain is constantly under a double load – for non-practitioners it would be like multiplication in writing and singing at the same time.
Schulte-Markwort pays attention to processing speed in the intelligence tests of his patients. If it drops significantly, it indicates dyspraxia – along with other symptoms such as poor body and spatial coordination. However, the symptoms can be very different: “In a very mild form, the child only slows down when he has to write a text”, but he can cycle or climb without problems – unlike severely disabled children who have difficulty keeping their balance and are very clumsy.
This awkwardness can have serious consequences. According to INSERM, dyspraxia is often associated with impaired speech, attention, and learning. Research has also shown that affected children are more likely to be overweight or obese. They also appear to be at increased risk of developing anxiety, behavioral and emotional disorders.
If dyspraxia is suspected, it should be ruled out that there is no other explanation for the symptoms, such as head trauma. However, the cause of the disability cannot be determined. “With dyspraxia there is a disturbance in the connections between the various centers of the brain,” explains Schulte-Markworth. According to the INSERM study, there are four scientifically documented factors that increase the risk of motor problems in children: pregnancy complications such as stroke or hypoxia, premature birth, low birth weight, and gender. Boys are almost twice as likely to develop UEMF as girls.
Whether or not a child with dyspepsia receives the help they need is ultimately a matter of chance. “The doctor has to keep an eye on them and ask specifically about them,” says Schulte-Markworth.
Saskia Lützinger also says she was lucky that the medical team knew about UEMF and that her son was old enough to receive a diagnosis. Usually, this is only possible at the age of five, and therefore also at the beginning of therapy. There is no standard treatment, but motor skills can be exercised with ergo- and physiotherapy. However, as Lützinger says, she had to “test a lot and invest a lot of money”.
Her son is now nine years old. He attends a special motor school that takes into account children like him, for example by including alternatives to handwriting and working on the computer in class.
On the other hand, attending regular schools is, above all, a struggle for dyspractic people. “It is clear to people with dyslexia: the spelling is not judged,” says Schulte-Markwort. “But in the case of dyspracticism, I have to search for each subject individually to see what compensation for defects is required and explain to PE teachers, for example, that it is not performance that counts, but the willingness to make an effort”.
With the right support, motivation and patience, sick children can achieve a lot. Michael Schulte-Markwort has long been caring for a patient who is now 25 years old and studying successfully.
Moreover, the professor himself has a milder form of dyspraxia. Despite being a clumsy child, he was never diagnosed with a disorder; it was only in college that he realized that some criteria applied to him. This did not affect his career, but Schulte-Markwort himself says: “I did not become a surgeon, and the world may be pleased with it.”
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