Dyspraxia can be a real handicap in many fields including education. To avoid compromising the future of the children involved, it must be taken into account parental education and the establishment of special facilities.

Motor coordination disorder, dyspraxia affects about 5% of children, including 2 to 3% with an impact at home and / or school1. Clumsy, slow, lazy, careless ... The adjectives describing these children are often unflattering.
One child per class suffers from dyspraxia

DyspraxieLa dyspraxia, also known as motor coordination disorder développementale1 original, is a deficit of motor coordination may affect the fine motor, gross motor and balance to varying degrees. "Only one in three of these areas may be affected, says Caroline Huron, cognitive science researcher and mother of a child with dyspraxia. Children affected have normal intelligence but difficulty to perform certain tasks for which they seem more slow and clumsy that children of same age. An estimated 5% of children are dyspraxic, including 2 to 3% with a clear disadvantage in their lives quotidienne2. "

A crippling clumsiness

Dyspraxic children may bump into door jambs, reverse objects, have difficulty putting on their clothes, make their shoelaces, eating properly ... They can also be hampered in some sports and leisure (puzzle games, construction or ball, swimming, biking ...), have difficulties to find their way in time and space, does not recognize faces ... When there is an associated dysgraphie3, their condition is often detected in kindergarten, with the introduction of graphics.

"In these children, the writing never becomes automatic, Caroline Huron. Spelling asked a lot of energy, so their performance collapsed after a few letters or lines. Dyspraxic children may also have difficulty asking operations, counting objects, use scissors ... Or simply open their workbook and find a pen in their kit! "

When dyspraxia is not taken into account with, if it requires the establishment of adaptations, the difficulties may be chained, particularly academically. "In the current system, almost all learning and assessment of learning pass through writing, the researcher continued. Dyspraxic children are so focused on the design of the letters they can not pay attention to the meaning of what they write. "
Help the child with dyspraxia in everyday

Learn about dyspraxia help them recognize and understand its repercussions for the child. However, all manifestations of dyspraxia are not easy to find and some are sometimes unexpected (enuresis, voice inaudible ...). "If the child does not change his behavior when he knows that he risks being scolded, it's usually because he can not because of his disability," says Caroline Huron.

It is also important to indicate dyspraxia and its impact to people around children, as well as the latter. "Parents can tell him he is dyspraxic, this condition explains that his difficulties but he does not question his intelligence and they will help find solutions," advises the specialist.

They are looking for solutions or material resources so that the child is not unnecessarily slow and tired due to his Dyspraxia. The goal is to simplify his life, emphasizing its autonomy and questioning what it will be really useful adults: use of crockery bit fragile, shoes with Velcro rather than laces, T-shirts rather that buttoned shirts ... The entire environment can be redesigned.

It is of course totally useless to reprimand a child with dyspraxia to difficulties related to his disorder. This seems obvious but sometimes you have to exercise extreme patience and learn to control his reaction when the "catastrophe" occurs. "The child is the first pained, insists Caroline Huron. Reassure and dédramatisez. His efforts should also be encouraged, although not everything is perfect. A child who dresses only for the first time is worth commended, although his clothes are not matched. "

Help the child with dyspraxia at school

The Disability Act of 11 February 2005 provides that parents, teachers and external stakeholders (doctors, paramedics ...) agree on a "personalized schooling project". This allows the establishment of adaptations to school and possibly the introduction of compensation tools (computer) or advocating human assistance (carer school).

At school, it may be necessary, at home, to find strategies to bypass to allow the child to move at the pace of his comrades. Most often, these strategies are to use other means as drawing, reading or writing to learn and reproduce knowledge.

Writing can be simplified, lessons simply listened and summarized on cards given by the teacher, dictations made orally or in text with holes ... IT can also provide assistance: the child writes more to the keyboard and some software used to present the texts and exercises in a more readable form.

The expert says: "Accommodations are set up with help from the child. Regarding the texts, for example, will prefer a large print of black and white, another alternating colors, the third one Highlight ... In any case, it is useless to ask the child to accumulate pages of writing. It would be like a myopic hope he manages to read from a distance without glasses force drive! "