Survey of parents of children with dyspraxia

In 1997 the Dyspraxia Foundation conducted a survey of its members. It distributed a questionnaire to find out about the age at which dyspraxia was diagnosed in their children; their school's response to the child's dyspraxia; and the severity of the child's dyspraxia.

Four hundred and fifty-four members completed the questionnaire. The results were as follows:

Age that dyspraxia identified

• Parents were aware of difficulties on average by the time their child was three; a diagnosis of dyspraxia was made on average by the time a child was six and a half; currently the average age of member's children is ten.
• Further banding of the age data revealed:

	0-3yr	4-11yr	11yr+	No reply
Age first realised child had learning difficulty	65.4%	33%	0.4%	1.1%
Age first diagnosed dyspraxic	9.3%	56.8%	3.7%	30.2%
Age now	n/a	67.8%	31.5%	0.7%

• Parents were most likely to identify that their child was dyspraxic (25 per cent) followed by educational and clinical psychologists (13.4 per cent), paediatricians (10.7 per cent), speech therapists (9.6 per cent), teachers (9.4 per cent) and occupational therapists (8.9 per cent).
• Actual diagnosis of dyspraxia was made in over half of cases by one of the following health care professionals: clinical psychologists (18.1 per cent), paediatricians (18.1 per cent), occupational therapists (16.2 per cent). G.P's suggested dyspraxia in 1.8 per cent of cases and offered the diagnosis in 3 per cent of cases.

Dyspraxia in schools

• 62.3 per cent of children surveyed went to state mainstream schools; 16.1 per cent attended private schools; 6.7 per cent were in special needs units in mainstream schools and 9.9 per cent were in special schools. 4.9 per cent were reported as "other" and not specified.
• 25.4 per cent of children were diagnosed as dyspraxic before they started school; 74.6 per cent were not diagnosed by the time they started school.
• The 74.6 per cent of parents who reported their children were not diagnosed as dyspraxic by the time their children began school were then asked what the schools attitude toward their children was prior to the diagnosis. They were allowed to chose as many statements as they felt were appropriate and could choose "great extent", "some extent" and "not at all". The results were as follows:

	Great extent	Some extent	Not at all
Bad parenting	13.4%	25.7%	60.9%
Grow out of it	34.3%	45.7%	20.1%
Could try harder	41%	34.5%	24.5%
Naughty	25.1%	29.4%	45.5%
Wanted to help but didn't know how	25.4%	50.7%	23.9%

• Parents reported additionally such attitudes as, the child is bright so will manage; the parents are fussy, over anxious, over protective or neurotic; the child has emotional problems; the child has poor eyesight; the child is lazy, a slow learner, below average or stupid; the child has behavioural problems; the parent could not accept that the child was not bright; the child is immature and unready for school; the child is disorganised and useless; the child is highly strung; the school did not know what to do with him.
• Parents were asked how much the school knew about dyspraxia when the diagnosis was made. 45.2 per cent had never heard of it; 39.2 per cent had heard of it but didn't know much; 11.5 per cent heard of it and knew a reasonable amount; 4.1 per cent were very knowledgeable.
• Parents were asked to report on the level of help schools provided when the diagnosis was first made and now:

Level of help	When first diagnosed	Now
No help	29.3%	8.7%
Some help, but not enough	36.9%	29.5%
Helpful	26%	41.9%
Could not be better	7.8%	19.9%

• We asked parents what types of help their children's school provide. The following types of help were received (in rank order): one to one (49.5 per cent), use of laptops/keyboards (22.2 per cent); unspecified other (19.7 per cent); general understanding, awareness of problem (14.1 per cent); extra tuition (10.5 per cent); speech therapist (10.6 per cent); encouragement/confidence building (9.5 per cent); small classes (9.2 per cent); physiotherapy/exercises (8.9 per cent); classroom assistant/helper (7.8 per cent); occupational therapy (5.1 per cent); extra time allowed for exams/homework (4.3 per cent); sloping desk (1.4 per cent); special needs teacher, more help getting organised, social skills training (.8 per cent).
• We asked parents what type of help they would like schools to provide. The most popular was one to one help (26.9 per cent) followed by use of laptops/keyboards (25.6 per cent); general understanding, awareness of problem (18 per cent); physiotherapy/exercises (10.5 per cent); occupational therapy (9.2 per cent); extra handwriting lessons (6 per cent); extra tuition (5.7 per cent); speech therapist (5.4 per cent); encouragement/confidence building (3.2 per cent); classroom assistant/helper (2.2 per cent); extra time allowed for exams/homework, more help getting organised (1.9 per cent); social skills training (1.6 per cent); sloping desks (.6 per cent).
• When asked if their children were happy at school 33.5 per cent reported that they were very happy; 36 per cent were fairly happy; 17.5 per cent were neither happy or unhappy; 9.3 per cent were unhappy and 3.6 per cent were very unhappy.

Statementing

• 45.6 per cent of children of members are statemented; 54.4 per cent are not statemented. Of those who are statemented dyspraxia is mentioned in 67.8 per cent of statements and not mentioned in 32.2 per cent of statements. Of the 54.4 per cent of children who are not statemented 23.8 per cent are currently obtaining a statement; 22 per cent failed to obtain a statement; 11 per cent do not wish to statement their child; 43.3 per cent reported that the child does not need to be statemented.
• 24.6 per cent of children of members are mildly dyspraxic; 43.1 per cent are moderately dyspraxic; 19.4 per cent are severely dyspraxic and 12.9 per cent do not know the level of dyspraxia.

Correlating the type of schooling with whether a child was statemented, the following results were obtained:

Type of school	Yes	No
State mainstream	54.9%	68.6%
Private	6.7%	24.8%
Special needs unit in mainstream	11.4&	1.8%
Special school	21.2%	1.3%
Other	5.7%	3.5%

• correlating type of schooling with degree of dyspraxia gave the following results:

Type of school	Mild	Moderate	Severe	Don't know
State mainstream	66.7%	65.9%	41.9%	78.6%
Private	23.1%	17.8%	5.8%	8.9%
Special needs unit	4.6%	6.5%	12.8%	1.8%
Special school	2.8%	6.5%	27.9%	7.1%
Other	2.8%	3.2%	11.6%	3.6%

• Finally we looked at the degree of dyspraxia and whether or not children were statemented:

	Yes	No
Mildly dyspraxic	18.4%	81.6%
Moderately dyspraxic	46.3%	53.7%
Severely dyspraxic	78%	22%
Don't know	44.4%	55.6%

Conclusions

• It is disappointing that 65.4 per cent of parents reported that although they had recognised a problem before their child had reached 3 years of age, this had not been picked up or commented upon during the child's developmental reviews or pre-school review. This would suggest that the Dyspraxia Foundation has a vital role to play in informing GPs, Health visitors and all medical professionals to give more advice and training about dyspraxia and the symptoms associated with it.
• Parents are most likely (25 per cent) to consider first that their child might be dyspraxic. Only 9.4 per cent of teachers and 1.8 per cent of G.Ps are likely to consider this diagnosis. As most children are likely to be exposed to both teachers and G.Ps, we need to consider the importance of training them to recognise dyspraxia.
• Diagnosis of dyspraxia is most often made by a paediatrician or other healthcare professionals. G.Ps generally do not make this diagnosis. (3 per cent)
• 16.6 per cent of children have severe enough dyspraxia to require some kind of special need schooling - either in a mainstream school or a special school. 16.1 per cent of dyspraxic children go to a private school - significantly above the national average of children in private school of 10 per cent.
• Only one quarter of dyspraxic children are recognised as such when they begin school. This may have serious implications on the outcome of their schooling, especially if we consider the attitudes the schools hold toward dyspraxic children. It is of great concern that in 80 per cent of cases schools think the child will grow out of it. While some difficulties do seem to become less severe as children mature into their teens, dyspraxia is not something that a person can "outgrow".
• Also of concern is the 75.5 per cent of teachers who think that dyspraxic children could try harder. It is true that most dyspraxic children do work harder to keep up and do well in school. But only when the child, parents and teachers understand what the problems are and get to grips with the strategies that can be used to deal with them that "trying harder" can be effective.
• Over half of schools think that children with dyspraxia are naughty. Dyspraxic children can appear naughty because they do not understand the rules, or they have difficulty following instructions. Their behaviour requires understanding on the part of the parents and schools to overcome. More than a third of schools blame dyspraxia on poor parenting can only be distressing to families. Parents naturally take the blame onto themselves: the message must be reinforced by all professionals involved with the family that it is not the parents' fault.
• On the positive side, parents reported that 76 per cent of schools wanted to help but did not know how. Nearly 50 per cent of schools had apparently never heard of dyspraxia. The Dyspraxia Foundation has an important role to play in educating schools about the condition.
• It is encouraging to see that the balance of help received from schools shifts dramatically from the time the diagnosis is first made. The questionnaire showed that when the diagnosis was first made one-third of schools were thought to have been helpful, one-third offered some help and a little less than one-third offered no help. Some time after diagnosis, parents reported that nearly two-thirds of schools had been helpful. Clearly having a diagnosis and beginning an understanding of dyspraxia is important to the quality of schooling received by children.
• It is reassuring that once diagnosis and recognition is made, 70 per cent of parents report that the child is happy at school. However this high percentage is not reflected by the number of telephone calls to the Dyspraxia Foundation's Head Office during which the majority of parents reported that their children were unhappy at school. Therefore the importance of diagnosis is paramount to the child's general well being.

  It is important to note that this questionnaire was sent only to Dyspraxia Foundation members. By definition these are parents who have recognised the problem of dyspraxia and who have worked hard at securing help for their child. Daily phone calls to the Foundation's Head Office and to our Local Co-ordinators throughout the country indicate there are still many unhappy, frustrated children out there and many desperate parents.

  With the right kind of intervention, support and suitable treatment the child with dyspraxia can be helped to overcome the continuing problems that they will undoubtedly face.
  Tricia Pullen RGN

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