Developmental conditions

Dyspraxia

A Developmental co-ordination disorder.

• The NHS has separate pages for dyspraxia in children and adults.
• The Dyspraxia Foundation offers information for different age groups, e.g. children^*.     Scroll down the Home page for their helpline.. 
• You may be surprised to learn that it can affect speech, see Speech and Language.

These are conditions that are associated with autism and may be of most interest when a child or young person is developing their life skills.       

Handwriting

• Letter dominoes is a game that is easy to make yourself.
• Here is a video tutorial setting out several aids – including pencil grips.      It offers insight into what does and does not work.
• This video tutorial demonstrates the sock method of teaching proper pencil grip.
• This video tutorial demonstrates writing 3 letters of the alphabet.       There are more related videos in the margin, too.
• Some mums provide a sloping board/surface to write on at home.

 Dyslexia

Dyslexia is a common learning difficulty that mainly affects the way people read and spell words.     Click icon for an easy reading introduction.      Scroll down for comments.

• For more detail, see  British Dyslexia Association  (BDA).     They also have resources for parents.       And much more …
• See Dislexia outreach for support in Lincolnshire.      They support parents, teachers, and pupils.
• See also under handwriting aids below.

Dysgraphia

Dysgraphia is having difficulty learning to:     1. recognise and write letters and words       2.  link sounds, speech and writing.

• For an easy reading introduction, see  About Health.      See links for more detailed information.
• Here is a collection of scientific presentations:  Science direct       They address Specific learning disabilities and creativity.

 Specific Learning Difficulties

SpLD is an umbrella term used to cover a range of frequently co-occurring difficulties, more commonly:

• Dyslexia
• Dyspraxia / DCD
• Dyscalculia
• D.D / A.D.H.D

Specific Learning Difficulties (or SpLDs), affect the way information is learned and processed. They are neurological (rather than psychological), usually run in families and occur independently of intelligence. They can have significant impact on education and learning and on the acquisition of literacy skills.

In general, a student may be diagnosed with a SpLD where there is a lack of achievement at age and ability level, or a large discrepancy between achievement and intellectual ability.

Echolalia

• Here is an introduction to echolalia.       Mimicry is an efficient way to experiment with different sounds and practice emerging social language skills. 
• This article offers a medical analysis.       People with echolalia repeat noises and phrases that they hear.      They may not be able to communicate effectively because they struggle to express their own thoughts.        If they struggle to do anything other than repeat what has been said, they may have echolalia.        Some children with autism are regularly tested for this during their speech lessons.
• Here is a more detailed article about echolalia with autism – Even echolalia is a normal way to learn language.      Most children use echolalia to learn language.       The majority of children babble in a rhythmic way, which is actually mimicking the cadence of our language. 
• In adults – Echolalia should normally disappear around two and half years of age.      It is often considered abnormal if it persists beyond age 3 years.

Dyscalculia

Dyscalculia is a specific difficulty with arithmetic, or maths.

• The Dyscalculia website looks pretty definitive.         It offers a handy introduction
• For more information see Dyscalculia Talks.       It has articles to read as well as video clips to watch.

See also