Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD), often called dyspraxia is a condition where a child’s ability to use his body does not match his intellectual ability. Most often, children with DCD or dyspraxia have average or above-average intelligence and yet appear clumsy. They may be smart enough, but don’t seem to be keeping up at school. Some of the symptoms of DCD/dyspraxia may include difficulty in the following:

• Everyday activities such as dressing, buttoning, shoelaces, eating with a knife and fork, pouring, etc
• Typical childhood games/activities, such as riding a bicycle, ball games, P.E., etc
• Academic skills, particularly writing or drawing, but sometimes difficult with maths, attention, and reading may be associated with DCD/dyspraxia
• Organisational skills, from tidying a bedroom, managing a schoolbag, remembering things such as homework or materials, or structuring an essay
• Social skills, such as mixing with others, understanding social cues, making and keeping friends, etc.
• Sensory processing, with possible difficulty with sensitivity to certain sensations, such as tags in clothes, art & craft activities, noisy environments, heights, or others.

Occupational therapists are the primary therapists who work with children with dyspraxia, although they often work together with a team, such as with the speech and language therapist when a child has verbal dyspraxia, or with the psychologist when a child has attention or reading difficulties.

Occupational therapists will use a combination of approaches to work on a child’s motor skills.
Sensory Integration: Sensory Integration is an approach of using sensory-based activities that feed into the body system, such as vestibular (movement & gravity), proprioeptive (body position and force), tactile (touch) and other input to improve feedback to the brain about how the body moves. Sensory Integration is effective in improving motor planning, fine motor skills, bilateral integration (integrating the two sides of the body) and sensory processing.
Perceptual Motor Therapy: Perceptual Motor activities organises body movement and is effective in improving gross motor skills.
Interactive Metronome™: This is a computer-based programme used for older children to develop motor skills.
Therapeutic Listening®: This is a programme of modulated music designed to improve time and coordination.