Gross motor co-ordination skills (large movements):
Poor balance. Difficulty in riding a bicycle, going up and down hills
Poor posture and fatigue. Difficulty in standing for a long time as a result of weak muscle tone. Floppy, unstable round the joints. Some people with dyspraxia may have flat feet
Poor integration of the two sides of the body. Difficulty with some sports involving jumping and cycling
Poor hand-eye co-ordination. Difficulty with team sports especially those which involve catching a ball and batting. Difficulties with driving a car
Lack of rhythm when dancing, doing aerobics
Clumsy gait and movement. Difficulty changing direction, stopping and starting actions
Exaggerated ‘accessory movements’ such as flapping arms when running
Tendency to fall, trip, bump into things and people
Fine motor co-ordination skills (small movements):
Lack of manual dexterity. Poor at two-handed tasks, causing problems with using cutlery, cleaning, cooking, ironing, craft work, playing musical instruments
Poor manipulative skills. Difficulty with typing, handwriting and drawing. May have a poor pen grip, press too hard when writing and have difficulty when writing along a line
Inadequate grasp. Difficulty using tools and domestic implements, locks and keys
Difficulty with dressing and grooming activities, such as putting on makeup, shaving, doing hair, fastening clothes and tying shoelaces
Speech and language:
May talk continuously and repeat themselves. Some people with dyspraxia have difficulty with organising the content and sequence of their language
May have unclear speech and be unable to pronounce some words
Speech may have uncontrolled pitch, volume and rate
Perception (interpretation of the different senses):
Poor visual perception
Over-sensitive to light
Difficulty in distinguishing sounds from background noise. Tendency to be over-sensitive to noise
Over- or under-sensitive to touch. Can result in dislike of being touched and/or aversion to over-loose or tight clothing – tactile defensiveness
Over- or under-sensitive to smell and taste, temperature and pain
Lack of awareness of body position in space and spatial relationships. Can result in bumping into and tripping over things and people, dropping and spilling things
Little sense of time, speed, distance or weight. Leading to difficulties driving, cooking
Inadequate sense of direction. Difficulty distinguishing right from left means map reading skills are poor
Learning, thought and memory:
Difficulty in planning and organising thought
Poor memory, especially short-term memory. May forget and lose things
Unfocused and erratic. Can be messy and cluttered
Poor sequencing causes problems with maths, reading and spelling and writing reports at work
Accuracy problems. Difficulty with copying sounds, writing, movements, proofreading
Difficulty in following instructions, especially more than one at a time
Difficulty with concentration. May be easily distracted
May do only one thing at a time properly, though may try to do many things at once
Slow to finish a task. May daydream and wander about aimlessly
Emotion and behaviour:
Difficulty in listening to people, especially in large groups. Can be tactless, interrupt frequently. Problems with team work
Difficulty in picking up non-verbal signals or in judging tone or pitch of voice in themselves and or others. Tendency to take things literally. May listen but not understand
Slow to adapt to new or unpredictable situations. Sometimes avoids them altogether
Impulsive. Tendency to be easily frustrated, wanting immediate gratification
Tendency to be erratic ñ have ‘good and bad days’
Tendency to opt out of things that are too difficult
Emotions as a result of difficulties experienced:
Tend to get stressed, depressed and anxious easily
May have difficulty sleeping
Prone to low self-esteem, emotional outbursts, phobias, fears, obsessions, compulsions and addictive behaviour
frustrated
excited
