How should Dyspraxics do learning?

Education is a huge part of who we all are, like it or not but everyone in the world is judged by their success or as often is the case, failure in education. For a Dyspraxic this often entails countless hours of hard work, countless hours of sweating under lights while others watch The Simpsons, countless hours of internally asking 'Why am I me? Why don't I have more time for friends?'.

I am not going to pretend that education is easy for a Dyspraxic, won't lie and tell you that it will all become easier and I certainly won't patronise you by using a sentence like 'You will get there in the end'.

Your child probably will get there in the end, however, they won't want to have a long time frame put on it all. As a parent needs to be prepared to quite a few things:

1) Be prepared to defend your child at short notice.

2) Fight for recognition and/or resources.

up shoelaces

3) Be up for long early mornings doing up shoelaces and getting flies done up.

4) Stoically work through homework.

5) Do your research on Dyspraxia.

Never, never, never let your child feel like a burden or someone who needs to be treated with cotton gloves. A Dyspraxic child will probably be an empathic, emotionally aware, and creative person. They may struggle while other people flourish but the one thing they won't want is pity. We as a collective are told what we can't do but who is telling us what we can do?

Now that quite a lot of the psychology is out of the way it is time perhaps a good time to move on to the practical stuff. Hard work alone will not get your child through but that coupled with some simple strategies will. Firstly, time management is crucial. Dyspraxia is a very tiring condition and we will get more exhausted than other people and we will begin to accept this.

So how does time management help? Well if you recognize when your child's handwriting has gone from horrible to nearly horrific when their colouring skills have gone dangerously messy. When you gather all of this you can learn the educational basics. Don't compare your child to a sibling, just do them.

Practice handwriting, practice touch typing, practice drawing straight lines. Because although it may seem hard now, imagine how hard it will be for them as life progresses along that non-binary line. Imagine the difficulties when they get to Common Entrance and then GCSE. Try to start very early and then the positive results should start to develop.

Mark every milestone, and reward your child with surprise treats. Try and keep them hungry, ruthless, and most importantly motivated. Once motivation goes it can be next to impossible to get it back again. This leads to my final piece of advice. Always take each little step in isolation. Never look too far ahead.

On a very personal note, I was taken out of the firing line in year two and put back into year one. At the time I felt as though this was a relegation, it was three steps back without there ever being a step forward. But and here is a very big but that was the best single thing that happened to me in education. From that point in the mid-nineties right up until 2009 when I left Seaford College the secondary school I never made the time back up.

Looking back I'm so glad that Mrs. Evans had the wisdom to know when someone no matter how young wasn't coping in an educational setting. It did a number of things but as well as giving me time, it also took the fear out of being slower than other children. In the year behind their was no embarrassment but rather space to develop at a pace that suited me.

Hopefully, this will help your wonderful Dyspraxic and will help them to begin to feel happy within themselves. Remember education is an individual process, not a joint competition. Your child is a person, don't let them just be a statistic...