As parents, of course Parents hope that their little ones will grow optimally. However, there are often problems that interfere with a child’s development, one of which is dyspraxia. This is one type of disorder in a child’s motor development .
Motor skills are the ability to coordinate body movements. If a child has dyspraxia, then he will experience impaired coordination of body movements, due to disruption of the nerves that send signals from the brain to the muscles.
The impact, in some cases makes it difficult for children to walk and maintain balance. This condition is more common in boys than girls, with early symptoms starting to appear since infancy.
One of the symptoms that arise when still a baby, namely the child experiences delays in rolling over and walking. However, the variation of symptoms that appear and their severity can vary in each child.
Reason
It is not yet known for certain what causes dyspraxia in children. However, experts believe that this condition occurs because a person’s nerve cells that control muscles (motor neurons) do not develop properly.
If motor neurons cannot form the proper connections, for whatever reason, it will take the brain longer to process the data.
Experts at the Disability and Dyslexia Service at Queen Mary University of London, UK, say research suggests dyspraxia may be caused by immaturity in the development of neurons in the brain, rather than a specific brain injury.
Meanwhile, a report from the University of Hull in England stated that this condition may be caused by heredity. Because there are several genes involved, often, many members in a family are affected in the same way.
Risk Factors for Dyspraxia
Based on research, there are several factors that can increase the risk of children experiencing dyspraxia, including:
- Pregnant women drink alcohol
- Premature baby
- Low birth weight babies
- Family history of developmental coordination disorder
It is not unusual for a child with dyspraxia to also have other conditions with overlapping symptoms. Some of these include:
- Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder ( ADHD ) , which causes hyperactive behavior, difficulty focusing, and difficulty sitting still for long periods of time.
- Autism spectrum disorder , a neurodevelopmental disorder that interferes with social interaction and communication.
- Childhood apraxia of speech , this makes it difficult for a child to speak clearly.
- Dyscalculia , a disorder that makes it difficult to understand numbers and understand the concepts of value and quantity.
- Dyslexia , a condition that affects a child’s ability to read and comprehend reading.
Although some of the symptoms are the same, these other conditions do not involve the same fine and gross motor skill problems as dyspraxia.
Other conditions, such as cerebral palsy , muscular dystrophy, and stroke, can cause physical symptoms similar to dyspraxia. That’s why it’s important to see a doctor to get a proper diagnosis.
In addition, the presence of the above risk factors is not an absolute requirement for dyspraxia in children because basically the mechanism that causes dyspraxia is still not known for certain.
However, mothers are still advised to maintain a healthy pregnancy to prevent developmental disorders in children, including dyspraxia.
Signs That Your Child Has Dyspraxia
In addition to symptoms such as delays in rolling over and walking when the child is still a baby, there are also other signs that parents should suspect as dyspraxia, namely:
- Late in holding up head when baby is still a baby
- Your little one is late to roll over
- Late can sit
- Awkward body posture
- Sensitive to loud sounds
- Eating and sleeping disorders
- Tends to be easily fussy
- His hand and leg movements are too active
- Late to crawl
- Difficult toilet training
- Difficulty learning to dress yourself
- It took a long time before he could eat on his own without being fed.
Types
The disorders that occur in children with dyspraxia can differ from one another. Quoted from the HelloSehat page, there are four types of dyspraxia based on their movement disorders.
1. Ideomotor Dyspraxia
A condition where a child has difficulty performing single-stage movements, such as combing hair and waving hands.
2. Ideational Dyspraxia
Children who suffer from this type of dyspraxia have difficulty performing sequential movements, such as brushing their teeth or making the bed.
3. Oromotor Dyspraxia
This condition makes it difficult for children to move their muscles to speak and pronounce sentences.
4. Constructional Dispactional
Children have difficulty understanding spatial or geometric shapes, so they will have difficulty understanding and making geometric images and stacking blocks.
The types of dyspraxia disorders based on the impacts they cause are as follows:
- In terms of motor skills, children experience motor disorders such as not being able to write, dress, and not being able to perform movements such as jumping.
- The impact of dyspraxia on verbal abilities is that children experience speech delays and difficulty speaking.
- Oral dyspraxia causes children to have difficulty moving their mouth and tongue.
To diagnose dyspraxia, the doctor will take a detailed look at the child’s developmental history, intellectual abilities, and motor development.
Diagnosis
To get a diagnosis of whether a child has dyspraxia or not, it is necessary to involve several practitioners such as clinical psychologists, educational psychologists, pediatricians, or occupational therapists.
If parents suspect that their child is experiencing dyspraxia, see a doctor immediately for a consultation.
When your doctor or other health care provider assesses your child, they will need to know some things about your child’s developmental history, intellectual abilities, and gross and fine motor skills:
- Gross motor skills , which is how well a child uses the large muscles that coordinate body movements, including jumping, throwing, walking, running, and maintaining balance.
- Fine motor skills, which is how well a child can use smaller muscles, including tying shoelaces, buttoning buttons, cutting shapes with scissors, and writing.
Evaluators need to know when and how a child’s developmental milestones are appropriate for his or her age, such as walking, crawling, and talking.
Children will be evaluated starting from balance ability, touch sensitivity, and variety of walking activities.
Long Term Impact
The most obvious thing about children with dyspraxia is that they tend to be slow to develop. As they grow into adolescence and adulthood, dyspraxia can cause learning difficulties and low self-confidence.
Dyspraxia is a lifelong condition. In order to carry out daily activities, children with dyspraxia can be helped with certain therapies according to their needs.
So that he can continue to carry out daily activities for the continuation of his life.
How to Deal with Children with Dyspraxia
Although dyspraxia cannot be cured, several treatment methods can improve the child’s condition.
However, the earlier a child is diagnosed, the better the prognosis. Here are the types of therapy that can be done on children with dyspraxia:
It is done to see the child’s function in life, both at home and at school. This method will focus the child to be able to behave and do daily activities.
Used if there is a speech delay in a child with dyspraxia.
It is a therapy that involves the child’s physical, namely playing actively both indoors and outdoors. This is believed to improve the child’s motor skills and coordination.
- Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)
It is done to train children’s behavior.
- Perceptual motor training i:
This involves improving the child’s language, visual, movement and auditory skills.
Individuals are set a series of tasks that gradually become more advanced, the aim being to challenge the child so that they improve, but not so much that they become frustrated or stressed.
- Horse therapy for dyspraxia
In a study published in the Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine, a team of Irish, British and Swedish researchers evaluated the effects of therapeutic horse-riding on a group of 40 children aged 6–15 years with dyspraxia.
Children participated in six 30-minute horseback riding sessions, as well as two 30-minute audiovisual screening sessions.
The study found that horse riding therapy stimulated and improved participants’ cognitive, mood and gait parameters.
The authors add that “the data also suggest the potential value of an audiovisual approach to equine therapy.”
Prevention
There is actually no specific way to prevent dyspraxia in children. The most important thing is to maintain a healthy pregnancy so that the condition of the mother and fetus is maintained.
Here are some things you can do to reduce the risk of dyspraxia:
- Pregnant women should avoid smoking, alcohol and illegal drugs.
- Avoid environments with cigarette smoke.
- Have regular pregnancy check-ups.
- Undertake genetic counseling, if there is a family history of similar disorders.
When to Call a Doctor?
If you find any symptoms of dyspraxia in your child, immediately consult your pediatrician about the condition.
In this way, the doctor can observe and recommend treatment to address these symptoms.
Early diagnosis and treatment can prevent a child from experiencing a worsening condition.
These are some notes that you need to know about dyspraxia in children.
Hopefully this article is useful, Parents.
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Republished with permission from theAsianParent Indonesia
