There are four main levels of difficulty: Speech and Language; Handwriting & Drawing; Whole body movement & coordination; Physical Play;
Speech and Language:
Developmental Verbal Dyspraxia is a form of Ideational Dyspraxia, which causes linguistic and/or phonological impairment. Problems include:
- Difficulty controlling speech
- Difficulty making sounds
- Difficulty sequencing sounds
- Difficulty controlling breathing
- Slow Language Development
- Difficulty with feeding
Handwriting and Drawing:
Difficulty with fine motor co-ordination leads to problems with handwriting, which may be due to ideational or ideo-motor difficulties. Problems Include:
- Learning basic movement patterns
- Forming a writing speed
- The amount of graphemes to be learned (i.e. numbers, letters)
- Establishing a correct pencil grip
Whole Body Movement and Coordination:
Issues with motor coordination refer to walking, running, climbing and jumping. One area of difficulty is associative movement where a part of the body twitches or moves in response to a movement in an active part (i.e. hands turning in/outward corresponding with the movement of feet). Problems Include:
- Poor Timing
- Poor Balance
- Difficulty combining movements in a controlled sequence
- Difficulty remembering the next movement in a sequence
Physical Play:
Difficulties in areas related to physical play may cause isolation from the peers of other students. Development targets include ball skills, use of toys and manipulative skills including pouring, threading & using scissors. Problems Include:
- Problems with body position
- Mistiming catching a ball
- Combination of skills involved using scissors
- Problems related to dressing and feeding