Dyspraxia, not dyslexia... by Wishimay

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Dyspraxia, not dyslexia...

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POSTED BY: WISHIMAY
UPDATED: Thursday, November 10, 2011 07:56
SHORT URL: http://bit.ly/u23gjy
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Wednesday, November 9, 2011 5:41 AM

Having a couple discussions about my kid I feel the need to clarify and educate. We think she has DYSPRAXIA, which is slightly different than dyslexia.

People who are dyspraxic have a kind of motor sensory integration problem. They have problems with the brain sending complex information in order and at normal speed.

Things my kid had a hard time with...

For one thing she was an awful baby. Cried, whined, made noise NON STOP. She never learned to crawl, and instead went straight to walking. When she was about four I remember having a discussion about locations using before and after between and so on and she just COULDN'T understand. Every morning I would tell her to back up so I could comb her hair, and she would walk forward-even knowing what she needed to do. In kindergarten I had to write left and right on her hands constantly and she still has problems tying her shoelaces somedays. She still gets personal pronouns like him and her confused. She had problems forming words and they still often run together. She's terrified of heights and cannot go on tall slides or playtubes. She runs right into people at the store because she cannot anticipate which direction they are going. She can't figure out letter direction because her brain can't make sense of the direction. She actually reads the best in her class- bcuase enev wehn it's msesed up msot can sitll raed...see?
Math concepts are also tough for her, so we go over and over them- but it doen't always go very well because like her mom she has a bad short term memory...She's a bit clumsy and tends to get hurt because doing multiple things at the same time takes more effort. She still has trouble playing with balls. We are both very sensitive to light, sound, temperature...In fact she also has Urticaria and breaks out in a rash whenever she gets slightly cold.(her body is allergic to the protein cells that float to the skin's surface in order to protect it from things like frostbite.) She also has slight regular allergies, like pollen and mold. I have learned to give her a benydryl before bed on cold days and we use hemp lotion because her skin can absorb plant protiens...Still she's a great kid. She's very sweet, and emotionally and ovservationally astute. She's very into science and art and reading and she's very mature for her age and has a wonderful zany sense of humor. She also has a tendancy to understand complex ideas or morals in the story that most kids just DON'T...

I had trouble with a few of these things and that combined with her father having mild Aspergers(in the same family!!), wah-lah dyspraxia!

I'm not trying to make it sound horrible. After all, she can walk and talk and have a personality and a life and some don't. I've gotten very used to being creative and finding different ways to teach and to work around it. Some people have theorized Einstein was dyspraxic, but then, some people have theorized Einstein was an alien....

. Also, the guy that play Harry potter has it, sooo I can only hope my kid does as well...

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Wednesday, November 9, 2011 5:56 AM

CYBERSNARK

Sorry to hear about your hard time, but...

Quote:
Originally posted by Wishimay:
She's very sweet, and emotionally and ovservationally astute. She's very into science and art and reading and she's very mature for her age and has a wonderful zany sense of humor. She also has a tendancy to understand complex ideas or morals in the story that most kids just DON'T...

Sounds to me like she's just fine in all the stuff that really matters (and she has parents who love her. That compensates for a whole lot).

Also:

Quote:
She runs right into people at the store because she cannot anticipate which direction they are going.

To be fair, I think most pedestrians can't anticipate what direction they're going either (it's sure as hell not the direction they're looking in most of the time).

-----
We applied the cortical electrodes but were unable to get a neural reaction from either patient.

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Wednesday, November 9, 2011 6:18 AM

WISHIMAY

Most of the time I don't mind...it's the ones that are running somewhere or bump into ya at full speed and have no class about it, sighing or angry frowning.

There was a line in Jayne Eyre about "What should you do to avoid hell?"

The little girl says "I must keep in good health and not die"

I think about that a lot now. I don't think I could make anyone else understand what she needs.

I would crawl over hot coals and broken glass and a pit full of fire for my kid...

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Wednesday, November 9, 2011 7:15 AM

MSA

Wishimay- hang in there:) Being a good reader is great. That will make things easier for her in the long run. I will happily help you develop some custom interventions for her at home if you'd like. Dyspraxia is frustrating, but being bright will really mitigate some of it. It'll get better in some ways and more frustrating in others. There are a few things you can do to encode her clothing and other items to help orient her directionally and there's some color coding you can do with math problems to make them more readable. It'll be ok:) HUGS

To love someone is to see a miracle invisible to others.
--Francois Mauriac
It's fuzzy-minded liberal thinking like that that gets you eaten.

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Wednesday, November 9, 2011 10:18 AM

WISHIMAY

Post got eaten

Anyway, right now we are working on Multiplications, but 6 and 9 are confusing. We do better verbally, but putting it into practice on paper takes forever. If I have one more tacher say "flash cards" there will be blood.
Color coding might have helped if we had caught this earlier, but now it's just a distraction.

We've done everything for her b and d problem. Taping the word "bed" to her desk so she can check it, but she forgets. Teaching her sign language alphabet helped some.

Speaking of math, the other day at Mcd's the total was $8.20. I gave her a $20 and said I have the change but she typed it in already and looked confused. I said $12 dollars. she handed me $11.80. I said no and counted it out on my fingers!! for her. She ended up calling her manager to verify I wasn't lying about 20 cents...

This is what I'm trying to avoid.....

Thanks for the XXX's, MSA. I'll pass 'em on. She gets one every morning and every night 'cause she thinks we don't like her if we don't, heh.

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Wednesday, November 9, 2011 3:52 PM

RIONAEIRE

Beir bua agus beannacht

It sounds like MSA knows a lot about this, admittedly I don't. The more talking with other parents/other people who know about this the more ideas you will have. Maybe there's a website for parents so they can talk to each other about what their kids are doing, what is helpful. So it sounds like the bs and ds aren't the only difficulty. I'm sorry Jack and I were thinking it might be dyslexia. I hope you're not mad at us?

She sounds like a really fantastic kid who has oodles of potential and will do well, especially once you guys have found some techniques/strategies for her.

"A completely coherant River means writers don't deliver" KatTaya

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Wednesday, November 9, 2011 5:29 PM

WISHIMAY

Quote:
Originally posted by RionaEire:
I'm sorry Jack and I were thinking it might be dyslexia. I hope you're not mad at us?

Who's Jack?

And darlin, if I ever GET mad at ya, you'd darn well know it. I usually save that nonsense for RWED, anyhow.

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Wednesday, November 9, 2011 9:03 PM

RIONAEIRE

Beir bua agus beannacht

Jack = Six String Jack.

I don't see you in RWED very often.

"A completely coherant River means writers don't deliver" KatTaya

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Thursday, November 10, 2011 4:05 AM

WISHIMAY

That's because I like my blood presure where it's at

I don't feel the need to vent about EVERYTHING.

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Thursday, November 10, 2011 7:56 AM

MSA

Well I'm a 10 year veteran special ed teacher so if I didn't know I'd be a pretty crappy teacher.
Oh suggestion on the b and d situation... tell her Butt starts with b and your butt is in the back. Picture standing sideways and see where your b butt is :)

To love someone is to see a miracle invisible to others.
--Francois Mauriac
It's fuzzy-minded liberal thinking like that that gets you eaten.

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