Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD) aka Dyspraxia
Dyspraxia is a condition that affects physical co-ordination in children and adults. The signs are typically present from a young age but aren’t always recognised until later in the person’s life.
DCD is the result of a disruption in the way messages are passed between the brain and body.
There is limited understanding of dyspraxia and how it affects the people living with the condition; part due to it being a hidden disability which can be easily missed or misdiagnosed, part due to children’s development having such variation, and part due to neurodivergent individuals struggling to be understood in medicine.
It is also not fully understood the cause of message disruption in the body, but we know that it is not caused by brain damage, illness, or injury.
A quick google search of DCD will bring up limited results, even within the NHS page on the topic which only focuses on children. However, it is believed the main symptoms are of dyspraxia are:
Difficulty coordinating different parts of the body – this can appear as awkward movements, extra mental effort required to perform physical actions, poor spatial awareness, difficulty learning new movements and transferring motor skills to new situations/activities.
Difficulty with organisation and planning – many people with DCD have difficulty organising themselves, thoughts. Dyspraxia is a comorbidity of ADHD. Many people with DCD experience issues with attention, memory and time management also.
Speech and language – Some people live with verbal dyspraxia which is a persistent and severe difficulty coordinating the movements needed for precise speech. Those without verbal DCD can struggle to keep up with conversations or get words confused, in the wrong place etc.
Social and emotional difficulty – Dyspraxia can make it hard to navigate social situations due to the mixed messages in the brain. It can also make it difficult to navigate and control emotions.
The symptoms listed above are generalisations of dyspraxia and not an exhaustive list. I hope that the above shows why so many people living with dyspraxia go undetected and undiagnosed. The symptoms can be easily missed as individual specific concerns or different disorders (e.g., ADHD).
Due to such a lack of research around this disability there is not much more known about how dyspraxia affects people, especially as each individuals’ development is different to the next. Around 5% of school-aged children are affected, with around 2% of children severely affected.
My own journey started around 4-5 years old.
I had started primary school and despite performing at a higher level than expected, I just could not hold a pen! My memories from 20 years ago aren’t very clear, but my mum remembers well. It took additional classes and support for me to learn how to hold a pen well enough to write. I don’t blame teachers for not noticing back then as despite struggling to write (common for my age at the time) I was active in the playground, P.E, and was a “bright” child.
I have been forever clumsy though, and a little “ditsy” some might say despite an at least average intelligence. I do have one teacher to thank. During reception I had a few emotional outburst involving items being thrown, lots of tears, and being sent out the class. My year 1 teacher saw the frustration and she helped me through. She later cried when I got into university. She wasn’t the last teacher to see something more in me, but she was the first and I am forever grateful for her.
My DCD symptoms were exacerbated by undiagnosed ADHD, making it virtually impossible for anyone with no experience to pick up on the DCD. Whilst I did drop things a lot and always bump into doors, tables, people etc. as a child these things aren’t necessarily red flags as we’re all fine tuning our coordination skills.
However, these behaviours followed me into my teenage years. I can recall breaking multiple phones due to ‘hand spasms’ (note I do not know if this is the correct term, but this is how I described them) or being told off in class as I threw something across the room. I did not throw them intentionally, but teachers wouldn’t believe me when I told them I simply dropped the pen, and it landed on the other side of the class. I couldn’t figure out knives and forks until age 14! My mum still cut up my food for me. It became a sort of joke between myself and friends. Curiously, I didn’t know it was an official disorder until I started university in 2019.
I explained to my halls flatmate that I had always been clumsy and that I struggled with my hands, I would tell people “my brain doesn’t know how to talk to them”. My flatmate asked me had I heard of dyspraxia, my mum had told me about my disorder but that I had a motor-coordination problem. I think that will have been what the doctors told her at the time (approx. 2002/2003).
Whilst the ‘spasms’ got less as I aged, and I had taught myself life hacks for being able to keep hold of items, I still struggled time to time. Looking back, it’s hard for me to decide what was DCD related and what was ADHD related. I think the two worked together a lot to require more effort from me to just function as relatively normal as I can. I find the word normal funny; a year 8 English project has forever prompted me to consider what is normal. For me, it’s feeling like I am like other people.
Growing up in the age where disability was seen mostly as physical and mental health wasn’t a topic other than to call someone attention seeking for claiming it, was difficult.
Without knowing it until the last few years, I had always been masking for a sense of safety and security amongst others. Due to late informal diagnosis, and never really understanding dyspraxia and the effects it had on me, I can feel like an outsider and misunderstood.
The truth is that I don’t really understand myself.
ADHD has been easier to navigate as there is a lot of content out there, and people are increasingly seeking diagnosis so there are larger communities.
I have spoken to a few people with dyspraxia and dyspraxia/ADHD mix, and we are of the consensus that none of us truly understand it. There isn’t much out there to relate to or research about. A lot of what you do read believes most children grow out of it. Not helpful for an adult still struggling!
I hope that with the increasing understanding and compassion towards those living with disorders we can begin to gain more of an understanding of how DCD is developed and how DCD affects those living with it.
By Bethany Walsh
