Whilst Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD) is a recognized developmental disorder, low muscle tone is a symptom, often associated with DCD, but is not a diagnosis by itself. Dyspraxia and DCD are sometimes used interchangeably, although Dyspraxia is a separate disorder, which may coexist with DCD.
Does DCD Really Require Therapy?
Many parents comment that there wasn’t all this therapy happening when they were at school and that we may just be looking for problems or making mountains out of molehills. DCD, although a fairly newly recognised condition, has been around for a long time
Children in the past went undiagnosed and were labeled lazy, stupid, naughty or disruptive.
These are the kids who found school difficult – who struggled to keep up and fit in.
In a fast paced and demanding world, children are being pushed harder academically and these children are expected to achieve and cope with an even more challenging school load and extramural schedule. Luckily, we are now able to identify DCD and address many of the issues that make coping at school so difficult for these children.
Therapy is a positive input that you can give your child if they need it. Therapy is not another extra-mural, but a necessary intervention to help a child achieve to the best of their potential.
"Physically awkward children often do not know how to approach a movement problem. In addition, they have no idea how to analyze the demands of a task and simply do not have the planning skills that are required to learn on their own.... This explains why such children need intervention to teach them certain strategies." (Peens, Pienaar and Nienaber; 2008)
Treating children with Developmental Coordination Disorder
DCD forms the backbone of our practice at CentaPaeds Therapy Centre. This is essentially what we are all about and why we exist in the first place. Children with DCD and dyspraxia often require many different types of therapies to address their various difficulties and at CentaPaeds Therapy Centre we are committed to providing a multi-disciplinary approach where we can streamline therapies and maximise outcomes.
All the therapists have extensive experience in this area of therapy and are motivated to work with the families and schools to ensure these children are not held back by their specific challenges and meet their true potential.
At CentaPaeds we pride ourselves on not over therapising children. We undertake to only see those children where there are specific indications for treatment. Contact us to discuss treatment options or concerns about your child’s development.