Yesterday, I was approached by my host teacher about attending a Dhfjsfdjskfndsjk Course. Trying to take advantage of all my opportunities (professional and social) abroad, I obviously said, yes! I tried to recon the name of the course I just agreed to, but it was more of a YOLO (you only live once) type moment and I was hungry for knowledge...and lunch.
This course was immediately after school and 3 other teachers, plus my host teacher and I, carpooled to Northcross Intermediate for this Dys-prax-ia course. Even after sounding it out, I still had no idea what this disorder was. Thankfully, I was in the right place to learn.
This professional development was facilitated by:
Dyspraxia Support Group of New Zealand Inc.
&
Occupational Therapist - Emma Radcliff
To begin this course, the audience of primary and intermediate teachers brainstormed a few words acquainted with the term "dyspraxia." Being the great listener I am, I took note and tried to infer what this course was going to be covering.
"coordination, balance, eye tracking, speech, distracted, motor planning, tactile problems"
I started to develop a sense of where this course was going...
We continued by decoding the term dyspraxia and how we might be able to identify students in class based on symptoms.
Dyspraxia:
Neurological-developmental disorder affecting fine and or gross motor coordination and balance
Impairment in the organization of movement
Affects language, perception, and thought
Motor planning, but difficulty the execution
Also known as "Clumsy Child Syndrome" or "Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD)"
a developmental disorder of the brain in childhood causing difficulty in activities requiring coordination and movement.
Essentially, it made me conclude this disorder affects students of all intellectual abilities, but influences language, perceptions, and thoughts due to overloaded sensory processing.
Facts about Dyspraxia:
5-7% of school aged children
Affects more males because girls often fly under the radar until they're older; girls have been said to cope with this disorder better than males due to the pressure of comparing themselves to their peers
People across all intelligences are affected, this doesn't affect their IQ; however, individuals with dyspraxia more often than not have average to above average IQ
Kids are diagnosed as early as 4-6 years old (symptoms become more noticeable at school)
This disorder has been known since 1920's, nearly 100 years
While there are many more facts than ever before, the research continue to grow increasing knowledge and awareness for this disorder. One main aspect this professional development focused on was the sense. An individual with dyspraxia tends to have extreme sensory issues, as do many students with other disorders.
A few affects to their senses:
A student might push the pen down too hard or too soft
Talking too loudly without perception of their audience
Every sound is the same level of loudness/quietness where they can't differentiate between which to focus on or which is of importance because they're too busy trying to visually process all of them
Therefore, children can learn to create compensatory strategies to help accommodate to their sensory needs
I've never been notified of having a student with dyspraxia in my class. Have you? Although, I think we can all think of someone who might have poor balance (difficulty in riding a bicycle, going up and down hills), lack of rhythm (clapping), lack of manual dexterity (cleaning, cooking, craft work), poor manipulative skills (typing, handwriting), inadequate grasp (using keys or locks), tracking (loses place while reading), body awareness (bumping into things), poor memory (especially short-term, what this blog is even about), listening to others (interrupt frequently), and difficulty sleeping. These are all symptoms of Gross Motor Coordination, Fine Motor Coordination, Speech and Language, Eye Movement, Perception, Learning-Thought-Memory Processing, and Emotion and Behavior.
Not sure about you, but I could check the box for about majority of those symptoms. While I may or may not have dyspraxia, we do have kids with all sorts of (sensory, processing) needs who just need appropriate accommodations in and out of the classroom.
Here are a few more difficulties students with dyspraxia struggle with.
Difficulties:
Balancing
Body awareness (small gap trying to squeeze into)
Planning and organizing thoughts and actions and things
Sequencing
Visual and auditory discrimination (everything is at the same level), makes them distracted, goes hand in hand with sensory
Memory (maths, basic facts, difficult to conquer more complex tasks)
Bathroom, dressing, eating (takes longer to become automatic)
More tired (extra processing)
Taking longer to learn new skills
Inconsistent; "it's like someone hits the delete key at night" (frustrating for both teacher and the student)
thinking "I'm not normal" "Why am I different?"; not understanding social thinking/interaction
Wanting to be in charge, hard putting things down
These difficulties can be quite common. I kept thinking back to the Autism course I attended, along with the students in my previous classes over the past few years. One of the facilitators explained how common it is for disorders, such as dyspraxia, to co-exist with other diagnoses such as Sensory Processing Disorder, ADHD, Aspergers, and ASD.
Feeling + Need = Behavior
Just like stress causes me to eat a lot and break out, dyspraxia has secondary affects, too. One with dyspraxia might struggle with developing and handling themselves socially and emotionally. These struggles can eventually negatively affect their self-esteem and confidence, domino-ing into weight gain and lack of fitness. But, don't worry. These are common symptoms many students encounter, just to a higher extent and with more sensory needs. Asking students how we can help them and adapting to their learning needs sounds incredibly overwhelming for us teachers, as we have 28 other learning needs to accommodate to, but it is crucial. We're already taught to differentiate our instruction, so, we need to spread awareness and knowledge regarding how to effectively support these students. We can begin with our communication.
7 words.
Communication:
Ask them how you can help them. "How can I help make this easier?"
They have to start over when given additional directions (Coach to a player: "Johnny, go right" "No, Johnny, now you have to go left and back!" Johnny: thinking *Okay, right, then back, then, left* takes much more time)
Keep language clear, brief, and systematic
That being said, again, keep instructions to 7 WORDS.
Communication is key not only with the students, but parents, too. Relaying information can effectively create a stronger and supportive team for the individuals.
Things to Think About
Try a multi-sensory approach (let them talk to figure it out in their own words, show each other how to do it, draw it out). Therefore, don't try to explain directions 483290x, but instead, allow them to go back, talk to a friend, show each other, and try to figure out the objective or goal through a different sense.
Look into the timing of breaks (recess) in the schedule. When do the kids really need their breaks? Should they have more down time in the morning? Large group or small group breaks?
There was a man in Christchurch with dyspraxia was denied alcohol by bartender because they thought he was already too drunk
Why is this child always causing problems in the playground? Does he know why he might be causing an issue? Is he aware there is an issue?
Can Johnny really not get a story down, or, can he just not sit down and write?
There could be a handful of scenarios we can recall inaccurately assuming a student's ability. I know I can. Aidan, in a previous class, wasn't able to sit down and read during our designated reading time. This time slot rarely changed and every other student complied with this request; why couldn't Aidan just sit down and read? He needed to be in a room by himself. Too many distractions in the classroom. So, I allowed him to read in the vestibule next to the classroom. Boom, win-win.
Sensory Needs v. Behavior
ADHD diagnosis could actually be, rather, sensory needs
Behaviors - happening because of unconscious sensory need ("Why did you do that?" "I don't know")
Vestibular balance system - register where they are in space, figure out how much they can do OR do nothing, just avoid movement and altering balance
Mentally compare and take note of other children their age (hop, skip, jump; finger touching with eyes clothes; rhythm)
Learning about student behavior made me reflect and recall many strategies I acquired from the Tips for Autism course. I was very satisfied to find correlation between the two courses and find some similarities in how I can support each unique student in my classroom. However, this course made me understand how large of a role the brain plays in this disorder. Students who have shut down can't learn because their brain has shut off and can't process past survival or relational lobes, let alone the sensory or cognitive lobes.
'Disregulated' Brain - Sensory Overload
Brain shuts don't from top to bottom (thinking, senses, relationships, survival - fight or flight)
Brain can only cope with so much input
Sensory before learning, get rid of sensory distractions in order to move learning to top part of the brain
Medicine - allows neurons to slow down and not think of everything, but focus
Anxious, heart rate goes up, can't sleep, leads to more anxiety
At the end of the course was a questions and answer portion. Still curious, I decided to ask a few questions...
Does one outgrow or overcome dyspraxia?
It doesn't go away, it's just the way your neurons talk to each other
Early age helps maintain practice, develop strong strategies
More strategies to help students with dyspraxia?
Figure them out
Noise cancelling headphones
Practice, be consistent, and engage in multi-sensory activities throughout the day.
Changes are hard. Provide proper notice and warning to the class as a whole when there will be change in the schedule or routine.
Jog their memory; help them recall a past experience by describing the scene
Avoid taking away tools (cards, manipulative), one could still need concrete materials to effectively process
Develop and maintain meaningful relationships = acknowledgment, connection, acceptance, understanding (trust)
MATCH
Modify the task
Alter your expectations (what's the goal - speed, accuracy, focus)
Teaching strategies (multi-sensory, smaller steps, follow up)
Change the environment (light shining through)
Help by understanding (what it is and how it affects them)
Fun Fact: I learned we should use different fingers on technology (iPhones, iPads, Samsung) because you'll lose sensation in your fingertips due to the devices not alerting your sensory receptors or the neurons on the finger. One of the facilitators threw that in really quick at the end...couldn't recall her wording, but she said something like that scaring majority of the young teacher crowd.
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