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Our Approach to Neurodevelopment for Dyspraxia

We have developed a unique approach to supporting children with dyspraxia offering an opportunity for growth and transformation.   

Dyspraxia is a neurological condition that interferes with an individual’s physical coordination, making tasks such as writing, typing, or tying shoelaces significant challenges. This condition can greatly affect a child’s fine motor skills and speech, often leading to academic struggles and a hit to their self-esteem. 

Reputedly Albert Einstein said, Education is not the learning of facts, but the training of minds to think. And this is our approach. We believe that everyone needs to learn how they learn best, especially neurodiverse students. Those with dyspraxia, ASD (Autism/Aspergers), dyslexia, and ADD/ADHD often have unique styles that they need to learn to understand. 

Our personalized programs aim to turn the struggles associated with dyspraxia into strengths, guiding students not just to cope, but to flourish. This approach is borne out of my lived experiences. Despite my battles with severe dyslexia and dyspraxia, I found a way to transform these challenges into strengths and became committed to helping students do the same. 

The Oxford Specialist Tutors approach combines an understanding of thinking differences with an understanding of how neurodevelopmental differences affect learning and cognition. We have found that traditional teaching methods may not be effective for students with dyspraxia. So our mission is to support neurodevelopment and cultivate study skills and techniques that work for our students, making the learning process more attainable, enjoyable, and ultimately, rewarding.

Grasping Dyspraxia in Context

A crucial element of our learning support strategy involves frequent dialogues with both parents and individuals living with dyspraxia. These interactions enable us to identify and comprehend the real-world challenges posed by this condition, providing invaluable insights that only firsthand experience can offer.

From these exchanges, we’ve observed certain common patterns and challenges that most individuals with dyspraxia face. These challenges, coupled with our extensive research and professional expertise, help us to shape an effective approach towards managing dyspraxia – our Neurodevelopmental Program.

We recognise that dyspraxia is a unique way of interacting with the world. Having dyspraxia presents a lot of challenges but it also often comes with an ability to develop strengths in intuitive thinking.

Specifically, some examples of dyspraxia challenges include difficulties with non-routine motor tasks, which can manifest in seemingly simple activities that most people take for granted. A child may struggle with fine motor skills such as tying shoelaces and writing, and gross motor skills such as sports and managing staircases. 

These challenges can persist into adulthood. Difficulties in motor planning can be reflected in difficulties with planning your day or organizing your space. This can make ordinary activities like cooking, driving, or work tasks more challenging.

The goal of our Neurodevelopmental Program is to address these difficulties with a comprehensive and empathetic approach, making it easier for individuals with dyspraxia to lead fulfilling lives.

Neurodevelopmental Program

When supporting children with dyspraxia, we often recommend our Neurodevelopmental Program. 

Simply put, neurodevelopment pertains to the growth and evolution of the brain’s neural networks, which are instrumental in learning and information processing.

Our program involves assessing which neurodevelopmental systems may be immature and in need of support. We also look at individual needs and interests and tailor neurodevelopmental activities accordingly. Often when the systems have been supported and developed, learning becomes easier and extra tuition becomes redundant. 

Here are some of the systems that are often relevant to clients with dyspraxia:

  • Vestibular System: The vestibular system is a complex set of structures in the inner ear and neural pathways associated with them. There are sensors that provide the brain information about the position and rotation of the head. This helps maintain balance and spatial orientation, and it plays a significant role in additional bodily functions. For example, the tightness of your muscles and their readiness to move, or ‘muscle tone’, and the movement of the eyes (see more on that below). An inefficient vestibular system is the reason that many people with dyspraxia suffer from falls or bump into people and things. 
  • Proprioception: This sense refers to our ability to perceive the location of our body parts, even without visual confirmation or physical contact with external objects. Essentially, proprioception is about understanding the spatial relationship between our body and the surrounding environment. A strong sense of proprioception is important for math, organization of belongings and thoughts, and even the correct use of tenses and prepositions in language. An inefficient sense of body-in-space may be involved in challenges with sleep, with general orientation as well as with sentence structure. 
  • Eye Movement: Whether following a moving object (such as a ball you’re hoping to catch) with the eyes, or moving the eyes along lines of text, when the eye movement is not smooth and efficient then reading, comprehension and concentration are compromised. Supporting smooth movement of the eyes may reduce eye strain. This can lead to improved reading speed and accuracy, better comprehension, and overall enhanced academic performance (and a better chance at catching balls).
  • Interhemispheric Integration: This refers to the communication between the two sides of the brain. It’s essential for coordinating activities that involve both hands or sides of the body, like typing or playing sports. For example, while typing, the fingers on both hands need to move in a coordinated way to press the correct keys. This coordination is facilitated by effective interhemispheric integration. The concept extends beyond just physical actions. The integration and synergy between the two brain hemispheres enhance cognitive functions such as expressive language, problem-solving and creative thinking.

Again, each child is unique, so this is intended to provide representative examples. For any given child, we may find that we need to address other systems to support their development.

Neuroplasticity

The concept of neuroplasticity plays a significant role in neurodevelopment. Neuroplasticity refers to the brain’s capacity to form and reorganize synaptic connections, including in response to repeated activities. 

We develop a comprehensive program of neurodevelopmental activities for your child. These programs start with an in-depth assessment, and the resulting activities program is entirely customized for your child based on the results of that assessment.

Our brains learn, grow and adapt throughout our lives. Carefully designed targeted activities can help the brain to become more efficient and allow you to pursue your dreams more effectively.

A Holistic Approach

We recognize that each learner is unique, so we employ a dual approach – combining study skills tutoring and neurodevelopment – that is flexible and tailored to meet each client’s needs.

We generally recommend that a student starts with our neurodevelopmental program. Our experience has been that our customers who engaged in a neurodevelopmental program needed little or no additional tutoring.

However, it’s important to note that the need for tutoring still varies from one individual to another. While the neurodevelopmental program is enough for most, some of our clients do benefit from targeted study skills. This is often the case for clients who are significantly behind in their studies and require extra support to catch up.

Therefore, the role of tutoring in our approach is always flexible; we adjust it according to the specific needs and progress of the individual. Whether it’s additional support after the neurodevelopmental program or an immediate need due to upcoming exams, our goal remains the same: equip our clients with the ability to excel academically and in life.

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Roisin’s Story

Roisin just wanted to understand her dyspraxia. She was delighted by the changes she experienced. They included improvements in reading, comprehension, and the way her eyes looked. She also stopped bumping into things and falling over.   

Roisin just wanted to do a media piece on her dyspraxia for her BA Broadcasting dissertation when we got involved. She shared her podcast with us. 

Find links to her podcasts at the end of this article

The remainder of this article is in Roisin’s words.

Why I Contacted Oxford Specialist Tutors

When I first contacted Oxford Specialist Tutors, I wanted a deeper understanding of dyspraxia and how it affected my body and motor skills.

I had done physiotherapy, occupational therapy and other things as a child, but I still had challenges that I wanted to address.

I was very clumsy, bumping into door frames several times a week. So much so that one of my brothers used to laugh at me when I bumped into things.

And I was falling down stairs and falling in the street with remarkable regularity. Some of my falls were quite serious.

I was also concerned about my left eye. I was partially blind in that eye, and it was moving further and further out to the left.

Apart from being embarrassed about how it looked, it also impaired my ability to read. I just couldn’t pay attention to written text for long enough to process it.

When I spoke with Margo, I learned that this is something that is quite common for people with dyspraxia, and I was relieved to hear that it might be something that could be addressed by their neurodevelopmental programme.

Getting Started

At the start of the programme, I completed two informational forms and shared short videos of myself in various situations.

Then I had my first assessment session with Margo. 

During the Zoom session she gave me various activities to perform, to gather more information about how I process information and about how my brain works.

To be honest, I left that session feeling rather down, as it highlighted the issues that I was still struggling with. I mean, here I am, in my late twenties, and I’m still struggling with these things.

But I don’t want to keep falling over, and this process was getting to the root causes, so I persevered.

Support

I’ve felt very supported through the process.

When Margo gives me neurodevelopmental activities, she also explains why she’s giving them to me, and what the expected impact will be.

That gives me an understanding of the process, and the motivation to keep going. 

For example, at the start, Margo gave me two neurodevelopmental activities called Crazy Straw and Blow Pipe. She explained how those activities stimulate the muscles around the eyes to improve how the two eyes work together.

Progress after just 4 months

Now that I’m four months into the programme, I’ve already made great progress.

Eyes

I had been quite frightened about my eyes. They were getting worse over time, and that was scary.

Myself and my mom were even worried that I might go blind.

At Margo’s recommendation, I saw an optometrist who checked how the insides of my eyes were working, and everything was fine there.

That was a huge relief.

Right at the start of the programme, Margo gave me neurodevelopmental activities to improve how my two eyes work together. I’ve been doing those regularly ever since.

I’m very happy with how my eyes are now.

Most of the time, they’re working together quite well.

When I get tired, the left eye can still go out again, but when I’m rested, both eyes are working together better than they ever have before.

The change is quite noticeable.

Here’s me before I started the programme, a little while later, and now, four months into the programme.

Now my eyes look much more coordinated. I was feeling a bit down. I had fallen down stairs for the first time in months because I just overdid it at the gym. The last time I fell before that? It’s been so long that I can’t even remember!

Reading

When I started the programme, my reading was not really on my list of things I wanted to improve.

But in the past, I’ve had difficulty absorbing written information. 

The only things that would keep my attention were things like TikTok, Instagram and Facebook. Margo explained that the process of reading was such a strain that it was hard for me to focus on what I was actually reading.

But as my eyes have started working better, that’s impacted my reading. 

Now I’m able to focus not just on the words, but what these words are describing.

So now when I’m reading a book, I’m thinking about the appearance of the person that they’re describing, what they might look like, what they might be wearing, what they might be feeling, or their body language and other things from the description in the words. 

So I’m building a whole story visually in my head, instead of just reading the words.

I’ve been reading a lot more recently, and enjoying it.

I finished a book last week.

It did take me a while to finish. But I was able to tell people what happened in the book from beginning to end.

Coordination

My coordination was really bad before.

I was getting to the point where I didn’t even notice when I bumped into things, because it happened so often. It was just the way life is, so I wouldn’t even react to it.

My coordination was really bad before.

I was getting to the point where I didn’t even notice when I bumped into things, because it happened so often. It was just the way life is, so I wouldn’t even react to it. It was just embarrassing.  

So my balance and coordination have improved a lot. 

I think it’s because in the programme we’ve been working on engaging the left and right sides of my brain so that they work together better.

That’s made a huge difference to my walking and my balance in general.

I’ve been going to the gym and it’s made a huge difference there too. There are no injuries anymore.

Confidence

My self confidence has improved a lot too.

When I was turning 26 last year, I thought, “This is the worst thing ever!”

In the past when I travelled, I was always afraid because I got lost constantly.

I’ve just booked a trip to Copenhagen, and I feel so confident about it. Instead of being worried, I’m excited to go.

And now I feel fine about turning 27 this year.

Being Taken Seriously

My family never used to take me seriously, partly because I’m the youngest, but partly because of my dyspraxia.

Conversations with my family have changed a lot recently. I’m a lot calmer and I can express myself more clearly.

So my family is starting to take me more seriously.

Summary

Overall, the experience has been wonderful.

There has been support for every worry that I have and everything that’s come up during the process.

When I feel uncertain about something, I’ll talk with Margo and together we’ll figure out an answer.

It’s been great to learn about myself and make real progress in my life.

I’m feeling positive and optimistic about my life now.

Roisin’s podcasts:

My Dyspraxic Fears Episode 1 (9:57 minutes)

My Dyspraxic Fears Episode 2 (5 minutes)  

My Dyspraxic Fears Episode 3 (7:17 minutes)

Get the Best Support for Your Neurodiverse Child

If you would like to talk with one of our experts to discuss what would be the best approach to supporting your child, book a free consultation today.

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