Tying shoelaces, eating, writing or combing our hair are activities that for most people can be easy and automatic. However, most of these activities involve a set of different actions and movements that we must learn to coordinate.
But some people suffer serious difficulties in doing so from childhood, never developing that ability. These are people who suffer from dyspraxia
Dyspraxia or developmental coordination disorder It is one of the neurodevelopmental disorders, in which boys and girls who suffer from it show great difficulty when carrying out coordinated activities and movements, whether they involve simple gestures or actions that involve a sequencing of movements.
Symptoms
The most obvious symptoms are the presence of clumsiness, incoordination and slowness motor, interfering with the usual life and development of the subject. It is common to have difficulties in maintaining posture and when performing acts that require fine mobility, requiring help to perform basic actions.
Also Immature behaviors and social difficulties may appear It is not uncommon for there to be communication problems. However, these alterations have nothing to do with the existence of any mental disability, as those who suffer from dyspraxia have normal intelligence.
Unlike apraxia, in which previously acquired faculties are lost, dyspraxia is characterized because the subject has never developed the ability to correctly sequence their movements. It is common that the first symptoms are already observable during the first two years of age, It is common for them to present delays in the development of motor skills and take longer than usual to reach some of the development milestones.
Although it arises during childhood, it is also observed in adults, making it important to start treatment as soon as possible in order to reduce social stigma and possible consequences throughout development. There tends to be comorbidity with other disorders, such as other motor problems or ADHD.
Types of dyspraxia
As with apraxias, there are different types of dyspraxia depending on the type of where in the movement process or body the difficulty occurs. Four types especially stand out.
1. Ideational dyspraxia
This type of dyspraxia is characterized by the fact that the problem is not only at a motor level, but that the subject presents difficulties in planning the sequence of movements at the idea level necessary to perform a specific action.
2. Ideomotor dyspraxia
In ideomotor dyspraxia the main difficulty is in following the chain of movements necessary to carry out a simple action. The difficulty occurs only at the motor level, and the subject can perform the action correctly in your imagination Often the difficulty is linked to the use of an instrument or object.
3. Constructive dyspraxia
It is a type of dyspraxia in which the sufferer has difficulties understanding spatial relationships and acting in accordance with them. For example, a child with this problem will have trouble performing a copying an image or when organizing
4. Oromotor dyspraxia or verbal apraxia
In this type of dyspraxia, the subject presents difficulties in coordinating the movements necessary to communicate orally, despite knowing what he or she wants to say. It is difficult to produce intelligible sounds.
The causes of the appearance of dyspraxia are not completely known, but it is suspected that they are due to alterations that exist throughout neurodevelopment that cause the brain areas linked to the integration of motor information and its sequencing to not mature correctly. These brain areas are located in the back of the frontal lobes and around Rolando’s fissure
It is usually due to innate causes, but can be caused by injuries, illnesses, and trauma during childhood.
Treatment and therapeutic strategies
Dyspraxia is a disorder that does not have a curative treatment, although it is possible to use different strategies to improve the adaptation of those affected to the environment and teach them to perform different actions. The treatment of dyspraxia is multidisciplinary taking into account both the clinical and especially the psychoeducational.
In order to help these minors, strategies such as occupational therapy are often used to stimulate the subject and help develop their capacity for movement. Another element to highlight is physiotherapy.
Speech therapy is also usually essential in order to educate the minor and allow him to develop the necessary coordination to be able to utter words correctly. At the educational level, it may be necessary to establish individualized plans that take into account the minor’s difficulties.
The use of expressive therapy or techniques that promote the child’s self-esteem, which may be diminished due to the perception of their difficulties, can also be very useful. Training in social skills It also facilitates a correct connection with the environment. Psychoeducation both for them and for the environment can be of great help in facilitating the normative development of the subject and the understanding of the difficulties that exist in them.
