Dissecting Developmental Coordination Disorder and Dyspraxia

So we thought a good place to start here would be by defining some of the terms that we're going to be using in the podcast today.

And I'm picking really what the difference is between some of the terminology and the labels that people will hear.

So Anna, I wonder if you could start by just explaining what the difference is.

Is there a difference between dyspraxia and DCD? Which terms should we actually be using?

I think it's really helpful to first think about the sort of formal classification and what they mean in really thinking about what the diagnostic criteria are and take that as a starting point, because there are international agreed sort of terms and classification systems that help us to all understand what we're talking about and make sure we're talking about the same thing.

So if we talk about developmental coordination disorder or DCD, that actually has four formal criteria.

And the first one is that there is a significant movement difficulty.

We can talk about what that means, but that covers things like difficulties with fine motor skills and gross motor skills that have a significant impact on someone's life.

And the second criterion is that it really does impact their everyday life, their everyday skills.

It's not just something you see on a test, but actually it impacts the way they cope at school, the way they are at home, or for adults, how they are in employment or in leisure, and impacts on the things that they want to do in their life.

So Then the third one is that it's something that has been around since they were very young.

It's not something they've acquired.

There's not been like some trauma that's resulted in a motor difficulty.

It's always been there.

And then the fourth one is sort of ruling other things out and saying, well, it's not because they've had a major brain injury or it's not because there's some sort of disease of the muscles or the joints.

So it's ruling things out.

So I think that's an important starting place.

And so really we're saying there is a motor difficulty and it has an impact on people's lives, whether in childhood or in adulthood.

And we know these things sort of continue through the lifespan.

Now, some people use other terms.

And one of the really common terms is dyspraxia, whether some professional groups use that term, some individuals themselves prefer to use that term.

And I think that's sort of historical because we used to have a foundation called the Dyspraxia Foundation, which provided a lot of support for people.

Now, for some people, that means the same thing as DCD.

But I think for others, it can mean something a bit different or a bit broader and can sometimes sort of seep into other difficulties that they might be having.

Amanda, did you want to come in? I saw you nodding there.