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My website. hazelcarr@btinternet.com
What is Dyspraxia? -simplified
Screening
The difficulties, processing, gross/fine motors,vision, auditory, speech/language, behaviour.
How difficulties can be miss-diagnosed and investigated when Dyspraxia is the root cause.
Assessments in school.
The process of the special needs register.
The eventual diagnosis of Dyspraxia.
STOP!
Early intervention to stop under-developed motor skills and other associated difficulties.
The programme.
Evidence from children who have overcome/moved on.
Showing the programme
8 years ago I wrote a booklet about “Jack” to give out at the workshops I held in school. I was constantly visited by staff from other schools and asked questions I never had time to answer. This resulted in me extending the booklet into a book . The book “Dancing with Dyspraxia” is now available to purchase from www.woodfieldpublishing.co.uk on the left side click on “bookstores” then the box with “our latest books”. It is now available to purchase at Amazon all over the world but it says (not in stock) this only means they dont have it in their stores but it is available to buy. It is also available at Word Power Books and many other stockists all over the world. I am also on U Tube under a programme broadcast by BBC 1 Look North June 23rd
The book is about Jack who is based on many childrens difficulties, all in one child. His class support assistant goes on a course (myself) who learns about dyspraxia. I put into the book the emotions, frustrations, pitfalls, and achievements it took to set up the exercise programme. I also include the programme and how to follow it, explain each exercise, and the reason I chose each exercise carefully. I also give you the screening process I use in school for motor difficulties, although I can spot a child (and adult ) on a bus. Much of the screening is not by looking at under developed motor skills in Nursery (as I make allowances and time for imaturity) but wait for a pattern of slow processing, lack of social interaction, high motor activity, learning/behaviour difficulties. All other areas are explored and illiminated such as hearing, visual and speech and language. Although I now know that a weanekss in motors can cause these difficulties. If used properly, the programme works, and I have over 130 children. videos and memories to prove it. The book is not medically based with long words, statistics, graphs and percentages it is about ordinary people and how dyspraxia can effect their lives.
The first chapter in the book is about Jack who fell alot. I was told that you should “show but not tell” by a trained expert of children with special needs that you tell parents that Jack fell but not why, so as not to upset them. I believe as a parent you need as much information as you can get because I had years of being upset and if I had known what I do now I could have made a difference to my son and so many more children. I continued to write about children who were included in the programme, their failures and achievements, Dyspraxia (simplified) the programme, funding, after the programme, the four Modultites( eyes, ears, motors speech/language) and how these can all be affected by MSD. I have put the first chapter here for you to read. Good luck! I cant say I have found a cure (the dyspraxia society says that ) but with preventative methods at an early age I can elliminate you getting the label “Dyspraxia”, and I have 130 REAL children and parents to prove it.
Jack
Jack is six years old, nearly seven although he can’t always remember. He isn’t very big for his age and his Mum is always saying to everyone
“Our Jack will never put weight on because he never stops, he’s like a flea is our Jack”
Jack lives in with his Mum and Dad in a lovely big house next to Mrs Roberts. He likes Mrs Roberts because she talks to her about when she was little and worked in the mill. They talk for hours about all sorts of things, she’s like his Nan.
Jack hasn’t got any brothers or sisters, although he heard his Mum telling Mrs Roberts next door that she would like another. Instead he will have to manage with his pet gerbil Stan for now.
Jack can hear in his sleepy haze his Mum shouting for him to get up, but he’s all warm and snugly in bed. He was having a lovely dream. She’s woken him up now. Never mind he can’t remember what his dream was about anyway.
His Mum bursts in to the bedroom Whoosh!
“Jack will you get up! I’ve been shouting you for ages, look at this bedroom it’s a pig-sty, Jack get out of bed were going to be late as always and don’t think that I’m dressing you because your not a baby, come on Jack, Jack! come on, it’s school!”
Suddenly Jack realizes that it’s Wednesday and it’s school, he hates school, he feels sick now. Then he remembers all the work he’s downloaded from the computer on Dinosaurs for the topic they are doing and he hopes Mrs Mack his teacher will be impressed because he rarely makes her smile. He jumps out of bed but falls because he can’t remember leaving that mess on the floor, oh! Flip his leg is wrapped around the duvet.
“Jack what are you doing? will you stop messing about and hurry up were going to be late”
Jack picks up the papers that are on the floor, he must have left them there last night; he’s got loads on Dinosaurs for school. He’ll just read the bit about T-Rex because he hasn’t read that bit, that bit is really interesting.
“Jack! Are you ready, have you had a wee?”
Whoops! Jack forgot about school and getting ready.
Jack goes into the bathroom and has a wee, his mum always reminds him to go to the toilet as he sometimes has accidents at school. His bum needs him to go but by the time he gets the messages to his brain it’s too late. That really makes Mrs Smith mad she is always saying
“Why didn’t you tell me in time Jack“
Jack’s class mates call him piddly-pants and tease him, but he hasn’t told his Mum. He tries to go lots of times just in case but they have a rule in class which means they have to go at break time so that they don’t lose “valuable teaching time.”
He goes into the bathroom and fills the sink up with water. He gives his face a quick wipe with the face cloth but the water goes all over his Jim-Jams because he never seems to squeeze all the water out. He never gets his toothpaste on his brush. If he puts the tube onto the sink and presses it, sometimes it squeezes out, other times it goes all over. He can’t get his hand right to brush his teeth, it’s easier to move his head and keep his brush still because his hands sometimes feel really wobbly and he can’t grip things properly but that makes him go dizzy.
“Jack”
Now then what was he doing?
“Jack! Are you dressed?”
Oh Flip-Flip Flip! That was it, he has to put his clothes on never mind he’ll play with his plastic boats another time.
Jack goes in his bedroom and starts to get his clothes out of his drawer’s. He hates this, he knows he has to put his socks on first but he never gets them on right. He can’t get his thumbs in like his Mum showed him and then pull them over his toes as they always end up inside out and upside down. Jack lies on his back and puts his feet up and pulls his undies on. He’s tried standing up but he can’t balance and he falls over. He does the same with his trousers but he can’t get his zip up or fasten the button as his fingers don’t do what he wants them to. His Mum is always saying “Oh Jack! You’re all fingers and thumbs” just like his Nan and Auntie Betty, in fact all old people say the same things.
That’s why he never likes games like marbles and Lego because he can never pick up little fiddly things. His Nana always buys him them on Birthdays or at Christmas because she’s always saying “He’ll get the hang of it one day, he’s a boy, boys need to build”.
He puts his tea-shirt on but gets his head stuck and then he loses his balance and feels dizzy if he can’t see OHHHHH! BUMP! He can hear his Mum talking even though he can’t see her. “Jack! Are you messing about again? oh look! Get up you silly boy! your socks aren’t on properly, you haven’t fastened your trousers and your tea-shirt is inside out, everyday I end up dressing you, your like a baby, your nearly seven you know, for goodness sake” Jacks Mum pushes and pulls him into his clothes and then points him towards the door with a very angry look and mutters about how nothing he wears matches
“I’m a boy Mum not a fashion icon” he remembered that from watching Trinny and Susanne on Tele. Jack thinks this to himself but doesn’t think he should mention it as his Mum is a bit mad now. Jack goes down stairs and into the kitchen and tries to sit on the chair but falls off. His Mum lifts him off the floor and starts counting, he doesn’t know why at her age she can only count to ten, she’s always doing that lately. She puts a bowl in front of Jack and while she isn’t looking he puts his hand in the box of cereal and gets a handful out. If his Mum saw him do that she would go mad but if he poured them from the box and spilt them like he always does she would be even madder. Jacks has his cereal dry because it’s easier and not as messy but his crispies still fly all over because he can’t quite hold his spoon with out it wobbling. He likes to eat the same thing anyway because he doesn’t like to try something new.
“Come on Jack we have to go” shouts his Mum, “put your shoes on”
He tries to put his shoes on but he can never do the laces, he always remembers the right feet because Mrs Clarke at school taught him to make an L with his left hand to remind him which was his left. He waddles out to the car with his shoes falling half on and off.
He climbs into the car and his Mum asks if he has his seat belt on.
“Yes Mum”
He hasn’t really because it’s too hard he just holds it so it looks like he has. His Mum asks him if he’s got everything and he checks but it doesn’t make any difference because he always forgets something. He likes it on the way to school because his Mum chats to him and he has time to listen to her and nothing distracts him.
They arrive at school and his Mum puts her arms around him and gives him a kiss; she wipes her sleeve across his face and straightens his hair. She tucks him in and bends down to tie his shoes. “Every morning I tie your shoes Jack! You’re a big boy now Jack! big boys should be able to tie shoes by now”
“Mum all the others in my class have Velcro, can’t I have Velcro? “ Jack looks up at his Mum like his Nans dog when it begs.
“Well you’re not lazy like those babies; they never had Velcro when I was a little girl, now be a big boy” MMMMA! She gives him a warm snugly kiss and pushes him into the playground. Jack walks along the wall and rests against the class room window, he hates the playground it is so noisy. He never runs around if he can help it because he knows he will be knocked over or trip over or bump in to someone. His Mum is shouting and waving goodbye to him, he can’t wait for home time. Most days he cries and has tummy ache and everyday he tells his Mum he hates her because she is the one making him go to school. He gets angry and he sometimes hits her. He can hit her because she loves him and she always will love him whatever he does to her. But she still sends him, he hates school. Mrs Mack his class teacher comes out and shouts something but there is so much noise, he gets pulled and pushed and he follows every one as it looks as though they are lining up. He’s learnt to follow the other children when they move because he can’t always hear.
The trouble is, he sometimes copies naughty George and then Mrs Mack says “If George jumped off a cliff would you Jack” and then he’s in trouble. That’s another old people thing she says and anyway he would use a parachute he’s not stupid. She wouldn’t believe him when he said he didn’t let the fire extinguisher off it was George who told him to. Mrs Mack shouts again but he can’t hear because the other children are all talking so he waits until they are all in the cloakroom.
“Jack! I might have known you would be last, come on” grumbles Mrs Smith. Mrs Smith is the teaching assistant who works in his class. She’s always watching him with her little beady eyes, not that he would say that to her. Jack walks in to a mass of bodies moving about in the corridor and they are all pushing and pulling. He waits until they have all gone into class, but how on earth is he supposed to see were his peg is now. The pegs used to have his name on but the name dropped off and he gets mixed up with Josh and Jessie because that’s a J for Jigsaw. In Nursery it was brilliant because he was a lemon. Was it in the middle or to the left or right? He can never remember. He tries to get his coat off but can’t, he’s learnt that if you use the hook on the wall you can hook the collar at the back and ease it off. It looks odd but it works
Mrs Smith the TA pokes her head out of the classroom and looks at Jack. “He’s here Mrs Mack, he’s messing around as usual, come on Jack its register” She’s standing at the door with her arms folded across her big chest, not that he would say that she had a big chest, his Nana has a big chest.
Jack decides to just put his bag down and go into class but he trips because he’s got his bag strap around his legs, he forgot about the straps.
“I might have known you would do that Jack, go and sit down over there” says Mrs Smith Jack knows he is going to have to manoeuvre across the carpet to the space and he knows he is going to fall. The children are all looking at him because they know he will. He steady’s himself by holding the children’s heads and wobbling from side to side, the children grumble as he goes past and he eventually falls on Tom, who isn’t pleased at all.
“Will you please sit down Jack we need to do the register?” He wonders if he put his papers in his bag, he can’t remember if he put them in. “Jack! Are you listening, Jack what have I said?”
“Sorry Mrs Mack what did you say?”
“I’m doing the register Jack I needed to know if you were here” Mrs Smith the TA whispered to her.
“Yes Mrs Mack I am, I’m not with the fairies like Mrs Smith said” and he smiled at her and wondered if TA meant she was a Terrorist Assistant but Jack definitely wouldn’t say that to her.
This book is subject to the conditions that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, re-sold, hired out, photo-copied or otherwise circulated without the author’s prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than which it is published by Hazel Carr.