Dyspraxia
(Developmental Coordination Disorder) in Children and Adults

Superpowers:
Empathy, resilience, determination

Dyspraxia or Developmental Coordination Disorder impacts many aspects of a person’s life and it can feel like trying to navigate life without a compass or internal coordination system. 

Dyspraxia is caused by immaturities in the nervous system - retained primitive reflexes and underdeveloped postural reflexes, which result in apparent clumsiness and the many difficulties you may be experiencing.

Did you know it is possible to significantly improve your overall balance, coordination and spatial awareness, for lasting improvement?

What is Dyspraxia?

Dyspraxia (also known as Developmental Coordination Disorder/DCD) is a common disorder that affects movement and coordination, making you appear clumsy. It can affect tasks requiring balance, such as sports or learning to drive a car; fine motor skills and also executive brain functions, such as working memory.

Dyspraxia does not affect your intelligence.

  • Appearing clumsy 

  • Bumping into things

  • Dropping things

  • Struggling with sports

  • Getting motion sickness 

  • Becoming easily lost.

Dyspraxia symptoms

At school,  dyspraxia can result in bullying, as other children pick on a perceived ‘weak spot’.

The underlying cause of dyspraxia is that the ‘inner gyroscope’ is not functioning properly. The technical term is the CVS (cerebellar vestibular system). It tells you what is up and down, the direction of speed and travel and where all your body parts are in space. It helps you map the world and track things with your eyes. When it does not function as well as it could, everything is made more difficult. 

The root cause is immaturity of the nervous system - it did not quite develop the way it was meant to in the first year of life and some baby reflexes are retained and others adult ones are underdeveloped. 

Signs of dyspraxia in children

Motor

    • Missing/delayed developmental milestones 

    • Unusual body positions (postures) during their 1st year

    • Difficulty playing with toys that involve good coordination

    • Difficulty hopping, jumping, running, catching or kicking a ball. They often avoid joining in because of their lack of coordination and may find physical education difficult (potentially becoming less fit)

    • Difficulty walking up and down stairs

    • Appears awkward and clumsy as they may bump into objects, drop things and fall over a lot

    • Difficulty learning to eat with cutlery

    • Difficulty writing, drawing and using scissors 

    • Problems getting dressed, doing up buttons and tying shoelaces

Organisation/Communicating

    • Difficulty following instructions

    • Hard to keeping still

    • Slow to pick up new skills

    • Difficulty making friends – they may avoid taking part in team games and may be bullied for being "different" or clumsy

    • Behaviour problems – often stemming from a child's frustration with their symptoms

    • Low self-esteem

Signs of dyspraxia in adults

Movement

    • Dyspraxia primarily affects coordinating large and small body movements. Physical signs of dyspraxia include the following:

      • Movements appear awkward and lack smoothness

      • It takes extra physical and mental effort to do movements that others manage easily

      • Poor spatial awareness means more trips, bumps and bruises

      • Difficulty learning the movements required to carry out new practical tasks

      • Difficulty transferring motor skills to new situations or activities

Speech and Language

    • Struggles to keep up with conversations; may have long, awkward pauses before responding

    • Severe speech difficulties, known as verbal dyspraxia or Childhood Apraxia of Speech, involve challenges in coordinating precise movements for clear speech

Executive Functioning

    • Someone with dyspraxia may find executive functioning difficult. Executive functioning refers to:

      • Working memory: The ability to hold and manipulate information in the short term.

      • Cognitive flexibility, also called flexible thinking, lets us adapt to change. It lets us switch between tasks.

      • Inhibitory control: This includes self-control and the ability to resist impulsive behaviours.

      Executive functioning can be reduced when feeling tired or overwhelmed. This can be difficult for someone with dyspraxia.

Handwriting

    • Poor handwriting is common; may prefer typing on a keyboard

    • May produce lots of writing or neat writing, but not both simultaneously

Organisation and Planning

    • Difficulty organising themselves, their equipment, and their thoughts

    • Problems with attention, memory, and time management

    • Challenges with daily life due to organisational difficulties

Other Indicators

    • A history of physical awkwardness as a child, though they may have developed coping or avoidance strategies as an adult

    • Difficulty learning new motor skills or using them in new or busy environments

    • Difficulty handling tools and equipment, such as a tin opener

    • Poor balance and tires easily

    • Anxiety and avoidance of social situations where their difficulties might be noticed

    • Poor organisation and time management skills

    • Misses deadlines and is often late for appointments

    • Underachieves academically and in the workplace

Dyspraxia support & therapies

Here at The Key Clinic, we have two  vital ‘Keys’ to make life much easier for people with dyspraxia  These are our NeuroMature + BrightBeatz programmes.

The standard approach to supporting people with dyspraxia is to work on core strength with Occupational Therapy exercises and to practise gross and fine motor skills, such as handwriting. again and again.

However, none of these address the root cause of the problem: reflex immaturities causing the internal balance mechanism to not work effectively.

his system is called the cerebellar vestibular system (CVS for short), and it functions to tell you where you are in space, where your limbs and body parts are in space, how quickly you are traveling, and in which direction. If it is not working, navigating life can be highly challenging. 

The great news is that you can do something about this and improve the CVS's functioning.!

We specialise in doing this via our NeuroMature exercise programme and BrightBeatz Auditory programme—both designed to get the inner ear and balance mechanism functioning as they should, making everything easier to navigate.

Neurodevelopmental Movement - NeuroMature

The NeuroMature™ programme gives the body a second chance to develop,.We use highly effective, individually tailored neurodevelopmental exercises to inhibit retained primitive reflexes, helping improve eye tracking, balance, coordination, self-confidence, and emotional resilience.

Different programme options are available to suit different needs. You will be supported through a programme of neurodevelopmental exercises, which can either be done at home, or by our practitoners in clinic. Typically you will need to complete 20 minutes of exercise per day for up to one year, in order to fully mature the nervous system. (We do also have more intensive ‘Fast-track’ programmes for those seeking quicker results). Once things are functioning as they should be, there is no need to repeat the programme and results usually last a lifetime.

Auditory Integration Training - BrightBeatz

BrightBeatz™, our breakthrough, digitalised Auditory Integration Training, uses specially ‘modulated’ music to help re-educate the ears to hear in a more balanced way by giving the ears a physiological workout. The programme takes place over 10 days (two 30 minute sessions a day, at home) and improvements in behaviour and the ability to process sound are often seen during and immediately after the course.

  1. Retraining the Ears: Wide-band Modulation which is a ‘physical workout’ for the Ears: 

  • Muscles

  • Reflexes

  • ‘Zoom Lens’  +/- 30dB

  1. Retraining the Brain: Narrow-band Filtering, Volume differentials, Neuroplasticity:

  • Attention

  • Repetition 

  • Intense exposure

TESTIMONIAL/CASE STUDY: George, 14 years old.

The areas of concern expressed by parents were as follows:

  • Highly dyspraxic

  • Being bullied at boarding school

  • Regular Panic attacks (generally on drive back to school)

  • Extremely bright, but struggled with handwriting  


Following NeuroMature and BrightBeatz Programmes:

  • Panic attacks stopped

  • Body posture completely altered (much more confident, stood up straight)

  • No longer bullied at school (in fact, no longer wanted to go home at weekends!)

  • Made it to ‘A’s cricket team

The Key Clinic can help individuals with dyspraxia to thrive

Dyspraxia does not need to make life difficult for you.

It is possible to get your ‘inner gyroscope’ functioning as it should.

Making navigating every aspect of life much easier.

Please call us on +44 (0)1635 761565 or email admin@thekeyclinic.co.uk to find out how we can support you or your child.