APRAXIA

There is little known about apraxia in the educational field. Apraxia is often listed as one of the cases of learning disabilities, however not explained or acted upon it.

Apraxia is acknowledged more in speech therapy as Developmental Verbal Dyspraxia, DVD as a “oral motor planning disorder”. The problem occurs when the brain tries to tell the muscles what to do, but the messages get scrambled, they are not ordered (not in sequence), they are mixed up.
Occupational therapists recognise apraxia as poor motor planning, poor coordination.

 

Apraxia (dyspraxia) is truly a hidden handicap that can lead to severe educational and social problems for the affected child. It can make the child a social outcast, provoke bullying and seriously damage the child’s self esteem.

 

Dyspraxia affects 5% to 10% of children, up to 2% severely. Some researchers put the number as high as 20%  
(Dr J. Stordy, M. J. Nicholl 2002).

 

There is now scientific evidence that the motor problems and poor planning of these children persists into adolescence. They demonstrate academic problems, low self esteem and poor social skills.

 

Awareness of this condition is still very limited. Too often apraxia (dyspraxia) is diagnosed as ADHD, mental impairment or Autistic Spectrum Disorder.

 

Apraxia (dyspraxia) is a disorder of praxis.

 

             PRAXIS     -  to know what to do and how to do it  - 

 

First we have an idea and then we have a plan how to implement the idea, and than we have to be able to carry it out (in planned steps).

 

For apraxic children the sequence of messages is broken,
lost or mixed up, jumbled. Their praxis is failing them.

 

            Early recognition means early intervention.   
            A lot of children are not identified early or not at all.  
            The doctors, the therapists, the educational
            system are not familiar with the symptoms of dyspraxia.

 

The biggest challenge for an apraxic child is starting school. Everything becomes too difficult, his clumsiness makes him stand out, and he will not be included in games, because he will “ruin everything”. He will be “bad” in ball games, in writing, in following instructions and in making friends.

 

The ongoing reprimands by peers and teachers are demoralizing. In order to avoid ridicule the child may resort to clownish or “I don’t care” behaviour. Life becomes difficult because so much revolves around motor-based activities.

 

The self esteem plummets, the child becomes hostile, aggressive and insecure. Remarks like, “I am a dumbo, there is something wrong with my brain, everyone hates me, I hate school”, are common.

 

The older the child is, the deeper the problems become, everything is frustrating. He/she can’t write well, he/she is not good at sport and not good at playing with children either.

 

This child needs help! Apraxic children can improve if they are correctly diagnosed and receive the appropriate therapy, remedial help and understanding from everybody involved in their progress.

 

Apraxic (dyspraxic) children can function normally, become well adjusted and cope with school and family life.

 

[Extract from APRAXIA Unrecognised Big Barrier to All Learning by Hana Jay]

 

I became very interested in children diagnosed with apraxia (dyspraxia) many years ago. The term apraxia has been known from the beginning of the last century, yet educationalists shy away from it. Apraxic children are still misdiagnosed. In every decade they (apraxic children) are placed in a different group. In my lifetime they were called mentally retarded, clumsy, uncoordinated, aphasic, dyslexic, hyperactive, ADD, ADHD, more modern term is Autistic Spectrum Disorder and Asperger Syndrome.

 

Apraxic children are very clever. After years of reading and working with them, I’m almost sure, that they are extremely bright. The sensory inputs into the brain are very fast, however as the brain gets bombarded with sensory inputs, it gets overstimulated (overloaded), and the balance of excitation and inhibition is hard to keep. The incoming information is well processed, classified, categorised and stored. I know that, because as I have had helped these children to overcome the original problems, the children were able to recall all that they have learned, processed and stored previously.

 

Each action that we perform could be likened to a long chain linking object to object. Every link of the chain has to be attached correctly. If one link is faulty the chain will be broken, the connection will be disrupted. If more links are faulty there will be no chain, only separate bits leading nowhere. 

 

Let’s imagine the feelings of an apraxic child. The brain is stimulated, perhaps overstimulated and the mechanism blocking out some stimuli is not functioning well or it cannot cope with too many stimuli bombarding the brain. If a brain is overstimulated it has a safety mechanism, the overstimulated brain shuts out all the stimuli, the needed with the not needed. This lasts only for a very short time but if it happens often and sporadically, the output is disrupted (like the broken links of the chain). The messages are not clear, they are not synchronised and ordered.

 

This dysfunction is characterised by clumsiness in motor activity tasks (writing), poor eye-hand coordination (writing), reduced quality of speech and extra ocular control (focusing problem).

 

Apraxic children have no linear (ordered) thinking.        
Their thinking is not based on now, before, after;  
therefore they cannot comprehend the meaning:      
“do this... and then this and after this do that” or
what comes before or what comes after.

They live in now.

 

They cannot plan, because they don’t understand the concept of sequential planning, they cannot transpose themselves into the future time.

 

Our expectations and explanations are for them very confusing. They don’t know how to start and what to do next. They don’t really know what we want and what we mean for them to do.

 

That is why apraxic children are not able to learn like the other kids, yet they are intelligent. They cannot do the work, because they do not know what they are expected to do. They do not know the steps to use to proceed with the task.

 

If we look at a page in a book it looks sort of organised but for an apraxic child it actually looks all muddled. We organise things in a linear fashion, they do not.

 

Apraxic children prefer nonfiction books. The facts are usually organised in a kind of sequential order. There are no tricks, no unexpected plots, no metaphors and no personifications (animals and things acting as humans).

 

An apraxic child never asks for help at school because he wouldn’t understand the linear explanation. Children tell me: “The teacher talks in gibberish.”

 

Their usual question is: “What do you want me to do?” You tell them, you explain, yet when you check a bit later, they have done nothing, explaining: “But you didn’t tell me really what you want me to do.” or they say: “Show me.” Yet they don’t look to follow the instruction, they look everywhere but to see what is being shown to them.

 

I have diagnosed, treated and taught many apraxic children successfully. If you are prepared to give it a go, I can lead you through the step by step program to improve your child’s ability to learn. Some more at http://www.jayseducation.com/APRAXIA_LearningIssues.php

A parent has asked if the workbook Reeding Readiness is suitable

A parent has asked if the workbook Reeding Readiness is suitable
for a language delayed child.

Hana's answer

Reading Readiness is a handy workbook to introduce your child to the phonic system, needed for language development and
beginning reading. Often a child's language improves with beginning reading due to the letter/picture/sound and letter/sound/word/picture relationships.
Often the child's auditory perception (listening skill) is not fully developed. It helps to connect auditory perception and visual perception (letters, pictures)
with the kinaesthetic/tactual perception (feeling the lips, tongue and mouth while saying the sound or word, naming the picture). This complex perceptual
experience will gradually develop the speech and kick off the reading.

For reading we need both, auditory and visual skills. This book develops both skills simultaneously.
When working with your child, name the picture (read the word)and say the word clearly, encourage the child to watch your mouth (auditory/visual) and stress the beginning sounds (letters).

Example:
pot - press your lips firmly together and say the p with a strong puff. P is a plosive (it explodes). Say the word in one breath pot, don't say p-ot, but pot. Then say, pot starts with p and repeat pot. Make sure the child copies you!
As the child connects the picture and the word with the matching picture and the initial sound (letter) the child holds the images in his memory. The images make a connection in the brain. Later when the child sees the picture, he recalls the words, the sound and vice versa, the word recalls the beginning sound and the picture. A strong connection between the sounds and the letters, the words and the pictures will initiate the onset of reading and improve speech and language.
There is another important developmental step that is fundamental to all learning!
It is the ability to look and see, listen and hear and plan (imagine) what to say or do.

Everything we do we do in steps.
• First we get to know what we have to do
• Then we think how we will do it... (we think in steps)
• Next we decide what we have to do first, second etc
• Then we execute the action step by step

Some children cannot think in steps. They have a go without thinking it through, they do the activity in random steps.
There are reasons for not being able to think and do things in order. Children, who experience developmental delay in
language and find learning difficult, have to learn to do things in steps. Reading Readiness workbook which you asked
for (as well as all of our other books) work with the child step by step, involving all perceptual channels to activate the
brain to learn to work in steps.

I suggest to use puzzles for activating the brain to learn to work in order, step by step. This is how it works:

• Look at the puzzle. Analyse the puzzle. What is in the picture? What is the focus point (colour, main picture, part of a picture, shape etc)?
• Decide where to start: at the corners, top or bottom edges or build up a picture...
• Look for the pieces needed to follow the plan.

The child has to think "What do I need?"and then look for the particular piece.
The strategies will teach the child to think, look and do instead of grab a piece and try
to fit it somewhere, put it down again and try another one without any planning.
All children with language delays have improved dramatically following these strategies.
If you have any questions, or are interested in a more specific guidance for your child, please,
ask for more specific directions. Send a direct email using jesp@ozemail.com.au.

P. S.
The above strategies are an extract from "101 Strategies to Overcome Learning Difficulties"
by Hana Jay

 

Lateralization and Hand Dominance and Hand Domination

The two hemisphares.
The human brain resembles two halves of a walnut. The two halves, connected at the centre, are known as the right and left hemisphere.
The left hemisphere controls the right side of the body (the right hand) and the right hemisphere controls the left side of the body (the left hand).
The two hemispheres are essentially symmetrically alike, but they are asymmetrical in function.
Each hemisphere collects the same sensory information but in a different way to suit their specialised functions. Often one hemisphere takes over and
inhibits (suppresses) the other one, we talk about the dominance of the two hemispheres. We tend to process information using our dominant side.

The learning and thinking process is enhanced when both sides of the brain work together. This means that the subdominant hemisphere has to become stronger to balance the function of the dominant one.
The left side of the brain processes information in a linear sequential manner, it solves a problem piece by piece.
It lines up pieces of information and arranges them in a logical order to draw logical conclusions.
People with the left brain dominance live in reality. When reading they look for parts to piece them together to get
to a logical solution. They express themselves well in words.

The left brain processes symbols, letters, words, numbers, pays attention to spelling and punctuation.
It makes remembering and recalling words and spelling rules very easy.
The right brain uses intuition to solve a problem. People with a right hemisphere dominance start working from a whole problem then progress to process the parts.
They start from the answer and work backwards.
The thinking of the right dominant people is random, not organised. They will have problems learning to read using phonics. They prefer to see and understand
words in a context and get their meaning as the right brain is not sequential and planning is not a strong point. Written expression is harder without step to step reasoning.

The right brain tells us what feels right.
Using the right hemisphere we dream, create new ideas, we imagine, we communicate by using facial expression and gestures. We are able to draw pictures to help
to express our ideas and imaginations, we have intuition and creative thoughts.

Sensations from the right side of the body cross over to the left hemisphere.
The left hemisphere controls the right side of the body. For complex functions
both hemispheres need to be involved and work together. Spatial perception,
language and speech, and cognitive thinking are the most complex functions
of the brain. They require a very good cooperation between both hemispheres,
however they cannot work together well without the work of brain stem. Most
sensory and motor messages cross in the brain stem on their way to the cerebral
hemispheres.

Before the different parts of the brain can specialize, they must work together
and communicate with each other. The child with sensory integration dysfunction
will tend to use either hand and will not specialize. This will prevent the two sides
of his body from working together.