Dyspraxia

Dyspraxia or Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD) is a common condition affecting motor coordination in up to six per cent of children, of whom 70 per cent will experience some level of difficulty in adulthood.

Traits

• Difficulty with balance, fatigue, hand-eye coordination, rhythm, hand movements and/ or manipulation skills
• Clumsy movement (eg. knocking things over or bumping into people)
• Reading and writing difficulties (eg. poor handwriting, although may use either hand)
• Oversensitivity to taste, light, touch or noise.
• Poor sense of time, speed, distance, weight, or sense of direction
• Organisational or planning difficulties – poor short term memory
• Difficulties with accuracy, concentration or following instruction
• Sleep problems
• Slow to adapt to new or unpredictable situations
• May experience speech difficulties (also known as verbal dyspraxia).

Potential impact on daily life and employment

• May have difficulty telling others they have dyspraxia

• Difficulty remembering appointments or finding their way around unfamiliar buildings or areas
• Difficulty in learning new skills or completing tasks
• May have difficulty with dress sense or presenting themselves appropriately
• Can experience continued periods of low-level pain in joints
• Can find it difficult to wake from deep sleep
• Dyspraxia links to poor mental health (eg. anxiety and depression).

Support in the workplace

• Explore what coping strategies the individual has in place to minimise the impact of their dyspraxia

• Avoid giving complex multiple instructions, check understanding by asking the individual to repeat instructions
• Consider using memory aids (eg. dictaphones). Where memory loss is a greater challenge, use a job coach to help the learning process
• Avoid ambiguous terms as they may be taken literally (eg. I‘ll do that for you in a minute)
• Regular breaks allow concentration of effort to be targeted
• Reinforce learning with written information or CDs/DVDs
• Regularly check with the individual if they are able to put what they are doing into a time context – provision of a written timed plan can be helpful
• Job coaching should be considered when an individual starts a new job or experiences a job change.

Source; Dyspraxia Australia website.