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Dyspraxia



What is Dyspraxia?

Dyspraxia is a specific learning difficulty (SpLD) that affects the brain’s ability to plan sequences of movement. It is thought to be connected to the way that the brain develops and can affect the planning of what to do and how to do it. It is often associated with problems of perception, language and thought as well as movement. The effects that dyspraxia can have on a person’s ability to function in a day-to-day environment, as well as in a learning environment, can vary depending on the degree of difficulty.


Associated Strengths

Students with dyspraxia can possess the following strengths:
  • Creative and original thinking;
  • Good strategic thinking and problem-solving;
  • Determination and tendency to work-hard;
  • Ability to develop their own strategies to overcome difficulties.


General information

Dyspraxia has been known in the past by the unfortunate terminology Clumsy Child Syndrome, Perceptuo-motor Dysfunction or Minimal Brain Dysfunction.  In the UK, the current research refers to Developmental Coordination Disorder.

Some people with dyspraxia have ‘tactile defensiveness’ - they are over-sensitive to touch. Others may have articulatory dyspraxia which causes difficulties with speaking and pronunciation. Some people with dyspraxia have low self-esteem. They may experience depression, have mental health problems and experience emotional and behavioural difficulties; however, many people devise excellent coping strategies as they mature into adulthood.  Dyspraxia frequently co-exists with other conditions, e.g. dyslexia and Aspergers Syndrome.

A way of regarding this pattern of strengths and weaknesses is as a cognitive or learning style. In fact many students themselves experience their condition as a difference in the way they think or learn. The term neurodiversity asserts that atypical (neurodivergent) neurological development is a normal human difference that is to be recognised and respected in the same way as any other human variation.
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Developmental Verbal Dyspraxia (DVD)

Developmental Verbal Dyspraxia is a speech disorder that interferes with a person’s ability to correctly pronounce sounds, syllables and words. It is the loss of ability to consistently position the articulators (face, tongue, lips, jaw) for the production of speech sounds and for sequencing those sounds into syllables or words. Generally, there is nothing wrong with the muscles themselves. The person does not have difficulty with non-speech activities performed with the muscles such as coughing, chewing or swallowing. However, the area of the brain that tells the muscles how to move and what to do to make a particular sound or series of sounds is damaged or not fully developed. This makes retrieving the "motor plan" for saying a word difficult. As a result, even though the individual knows what they want to say, they cannot say it correctly at that particular time. Someone with DVD may have a limited speech sound repertoire though they may have a wide receptive vocabulary.


Impact on Employability Skills and Attributes

Students with dyspraxia may experience limited ability or difficulties with the following:

Although most people depend on the above abilities in the following employability skills, this does not mean that people who have dyspraxia cannot possess these skills; rather, they may need reasonable adjustments to practice to enable them to develop or evidence the skills.  

Click below for further information about the effect of limited ability on each of the employability skills/attributes shown:
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NB: The experience and characteristics of different impairments/conditions are highly variable between individuals. For this reason it is really important that you never make assumptions about what a person can or cannot do. Though someone may have significant difficulties, they may also have devised sophisticated means of compensating for these, so talk to the person concerned and make judgements only on an individual basis.


Areas where ‘reasonable adjustments may be required

Gross motor skills - Poor performance in sport, general clumsiness, poor balance, and difficulties in learning skills involving coordination of body parts, e.g. riding a bike,  swimming or learning to drive.

Manual and practical work - Problems using computer keyboards and mice, frequent spills in the laboratory and elsewhere, difficulty measuring accurately, slow, poor or illegible handwriting, messy presentation/work and problems with craft-work, cookery, etc.

Personal presentation and spatial skills - Untidy and rumpled appearance, clumsy gait, poor posture, frequent bumping into things and tripping over and can be poor at sport, especially team and ball games.

Memory and attention span -  Poor attention span, poor short term memory, easily distracted in class, especially by noise and bright lights, difficulty following class discussions, slow retrieval of information, especially when under stress; may become disorientated e.g. getting lost in buildings and in new environments.

Written expression - Erratic spelling and punctuation, awkward and confused sentence structure, poor proof-reading, inclusion of irrelevant material in essays and may be slow to complete work.

Visual and oral skills - Trouble keeping place while reading and writing (tracking problems), poor relocating - cannot easily look from blackboard/overhead to notes, difficulty word finding, and wrong pronunciation of newly-introduced words, speaking indistinctly, loudly, fast or slowly, interrupting inappropriately and difficulty learning foreign languages.

Numerical and mathematical skills - Tendency to reverse and mistype numbers, signs or decimal points, frequent and apparently careless mistakes, particular difficulty with geometry - both drawing and using equipment such as a compass or protractor and difficulty with spatial awareness e.g. drawing shapes, graphs, tables, etc. Poor sequencing ability affects ability to memorise tables.

Social, communication and emotional difficulties -Problems with oral interaction and communication, low self-esteem and lack of confidence, frustration, defensiveness or aggression, over-talkative and excitable behaviour, withdrawn and reserved or may experience anxiety, stress and depression.

Speech -Poor articulation or word finding skills, particularly under stress.
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General Advice

Students who have dyspraxia may have particular difficulty with:
  • Producing hand written exam responses
  • Laboratory work and/or field trips
  • Taking notes in lectures
  • Giving oral presentations
  • Completing tasks to deadlines
It is important to note that people with dyspraxia may need extra time to complete tasks successfully  They should be encouraged to use diaries, calendars and post-it notes to plan their work, and be supported to prioritise things they have to do first. Mind maps and flow charts can be very useful aids to planning.

Difficulties are pervasive and can also affect the student’s personal life, e.g.
  • Planning ahead
  • Personal self-care
  • Spending leisure time with others
  • Money management
  • Performing two actions simultaneously
  • Learning to drive

Resources/references

Adult Support Group

BRAIN.HE  - Best Resources for Achievement and Intervention re Neurodiversity in Higher Education
BRAINHE.com is a resource website for students and staff in higher education run by De Montfort University to help students with SpLDs (specific learning differences) and staff working with them. 

Dyscalculia and Dyslexia Interest Group - Loughborough University
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University of Worcester

Dr Val Chapman (NTF)
Principal Investigator
Director, Centre for Inclusive Learning Support
Email: v.chapman@worc.ac.uk		 University of Plymouth

Judith Waterfield (NTF)
Head of Disability ASSIST Services
Email: j.waterfield@plymouth.ac.uk
University of Gloucester

Dr Phil Gravestock (NTF)
Head of Learning Enhancement and Technology Support
Email: pgravestock@glos.ac.uk