What is Developmental Coordination Disorder?
I feel like I get asked this at least once a week. The answer is long and complicated, because like other neurological conditions it functions on a spectrum and not everyone who is diagnosed with DCD/Dyspraxia presents in the same way, though there are some common attributes. But, of course, as soon as you launch into this long-winded explanation people begin tuning out; my husband is always imploring me to find simpler ways to explain things.
The most basic way I’ve found to describe DCD is: in people with developmental coordination disorder, the brain sends faulty signals to the body. It affects gross and fine motor control, and has a host of other potential co-morbidities (including ADHD, Dyslexia, etc.). DCD figures into learning and how one learns, but not intelligence.
I will go into some of these areas in greater detail in future posts, but really, the only story I am able to tell you here is my daughter’s – and she’s going to help me do that. (She loves video cameras more than anyone I know, and is a consummate ham.)
Wednesday is four years and two months old, and just this week she hit a new milestone: walking down stairs without holding onto a railing. To celebrate this milestone and to help illustrate what DCD is and how it affects our lives, we’ve made a short video of Wednesday tackling the front steps of our house.
