Colman Noctor: How small shifts in schools can do much to support children with dyspraxia

Children with dyspraxia can benefit from minor adjustments in the classroom, such as being given extra time for written tasks. Picture: iStock

If you’ve ever watched a child struggling to tie their shoelaces, learn to ride a bike, or show clumsiness beyond what is typical, it could indicate that the child has dyspraxia.

Dyspraxia is a persistent difficulty with motor co-ordination and it interferes with daily life and cannot be explained by another neurological condition. 

It’s not about lazy handwriting or temporary awkwardness: It is a neurodevelopmental difference that affects how a child’s brain plans and executes movement.

Developmental co-ordination disorder (DCD) presents in subtle ways. In early childhood, you might notice delayed motor milestones, such as late crawling or awkward walking.

As children grow, the signs become more common and specific: Awkward running and jumping; dropping or knocking things; difficulty catching a ball; slow or messy handwriting; trouble using cutlery, doing up buttons, difficulty opening bottles or lids; and challenges with dressing or personal care. 

These motor issues typically extend to school life: Copying from the board becomes slow and tiring; physical education and sports can be embarrassing, because children with dyspraxia often lack the co-ordination of others and so physical tasks and instructions are hard to execute and follow; and timed classroom tasks (handouts, tests) can turn into immense struggles.

Many children with DCD also face co-occurring challenges, such as attention difficulties, learning disorders (for example, with writing or maths), and sensory processing.

The child who seems ‘distracted’ might actually be exerting much more effort than it appears, using considerable cognitive energy to co-ordinate fingers and eyes. Clinicians and researchers emphasise that the condition impacts participation and daily life, not intelligence.

But how do you move from saying, ‘I think there’s a problem’ to assessing and diagnosing? The current approach follows well-established steps. First, a multidisciplinary team gathers a detailed developmental history from parents and caregivers, who describe early milestones, patterns of difficulty, and how the issues affect daily tasks at home and school. Paediatricians, clinical psychologists, occupational therapists, and physiotherapists may all contribute to the evaluation.

Occupational therapists are the primary assessors of dyspraxia. To begin, they look for the four main diagnostic features: Poor motor skills, interference with everyday activities and academic performance, early onset in development, and exclusion of other explanations (for example, a neurological disorder).

Second, standardised, performance-based motor tests are used to evaluate motor difficulties; they include tasks that assess manual dexterity, aiming and catching, and balance. Occupational therapists also observe the child during everyday tasks and may collect reports from teachers and parents to gain an insight in to the challenges the child faces.

A diagnosis is not an end in itself — it’s a gateway to practical support and therapy that focuses on improving function and helping the child perform the same tasks more efficiently and confidently. The most effective interventions are task-oriented and child-centred and involve school-based support.

Despite getting an evidence-based diagnosis, families often recount a familiar story: That schools don’t recognise it, and teachers dismiss the child’s behaviour as ‘clumsy’ or ‘daydreaming’, instead of recognising that he/she ‘needs support’. Studies and surveys have found limited awareness among healthcare providers and educators about the impact of DCD. Even when teachers recognise motor difficulties, many fail to understand the knock-on effects for learning, self-esteem, and mental health.

A 2019 study by Dr Jacqui Hunt, in Australia, found that all surveyed stakeholder groups demonstrated limited familiarity with dyspraxia and low levels of knowledge about its features. They recommended an improved understanding of the disorder to ensure access to appropriate services and to improve long-term outcomes.

Children with dyspraxia are often overlooked because motor difficulties can be invisible in formal assessments that focus on reading, spelling, and mathematics. Overcrowded classrooms and limited time frequently work against teachers being able to offer personalised approaches.

Teacher training rarely covers motor skills development beyond gross milestones. Additionally, many children compensate by masking their difficulties, and so they can appear fine in a quick classroom glance.

How schools can help

So what can schools do, practically and quickly? Some evidence-based and pragmatic steps could make a real difference:

• Train and inform staff. Short, targeted in-service training on dyspraxia and the classroom impact would help increase teacher awareness and improve identification and support;
• Make minor adaptations. Providing extra time for written tasks, offering alternative methods to demonstrate knowledge (such as oral presentations or typing), scribe support, and adjusting fine-motor requirements (such as larger handwriting lines or pencil grips) help reduce daily pressures;
• Adjust PE expectations. Include non-competitive options, focus on participation over performance, and break motor tasks in to smaller steps. Physical education can be restructured to be inclusive rather than exclusive;
• Provide occupational therapy input within the school. OT can assist with task analysis, sensory strategies, and practical tools, and coach teachers on classroom-friendly techniques;
• Invest in two sets of books. If the student forgets to take a schoolbook home for homework, they will have another copy at home to complete their work;
• Use peer support and respect. Making small, discreet adjustments, such as pairing a child with a co-operative peer or providing assistive technology, can prevent stigmatising labels while offering help;
• Plan for transitions and assessments. Break down multi-step instructions in to written and verbal cues; permit practice runs for timed tasks; provide advance notice of activities that require complex motor skills.

Coping strategies

While assessment waiting times can vary and are often quite long, one quick way we can support children with dyspraxia is to eliminate certain school practices that they find especially difficult. 

These include rushing children through complex routines, such as unpacking bags or changing for PE; insisting on timed handwriting or lengthy copying from the board; making PE overly competitive or dependent on speed and co-ordination; giving multi-step oral instructions without visual supports; and marking work based on neatness rather than understanding.

Having homework on various online portals, such as MS Teams, Schoolwise, and Aladdin, can also be very challenging for these children to manage, because they lack the organisational ability to keep track of multiple platforms. 

It can cause unnecessary confusion, and many are often sanctioned for not completing homework, because they cannot find the instructions.

Everyday tasks, such as cutting, glueing, using rulers, or organising materials, are far more difficult for children with dyspraxia than they seem. Yet, schools often mistake effortful slowness for inattention or lack of interest. 

Replacing these outdated practices with simple adjustments like visual checklists, extra time, digital writing tools, flexible PE activities, and task breakdowns can significantly boost participation and confidence.

Essentially, it’s about shifting the focus from performance speed to genuine learning, so that children with dyspraxia are supported to succeed rather than struggle.

While there’s cause for optimism regarding awareness of dyspraxia, systems change slowly. In the meantime, parental advocacy and informed teachers are catalysts for making the life of a child with dyspraxia much easier.

If you suspect dyspraxia, then document your child’s behaviour, discuss it with the school and a trusted clinician, and seek a motor skills assessment, not to label, but to open the door to a child’s better daily life.

If you are a teacher or sports coach and a parent tells you that their child is dyspraxic, listen to them and try to make some small adjustments to explain instructions, be patient with their progress, and commend their effort over outcome.

What is a small gesture to you could make a world of difference to a child who is finding it hard to cope with many of the things the rest of us take for granted.