CB does not have an official diagnosis of global dyspraxia or DCD (Developmental Coordination Disorder). He actually doesn’t have any official diagnosis other than the loose term of speech motor disorder. For one reason, it is hard to get a diagnosis of DCD prior to the age of 5 and some doctors won’t even diagnose till around 7. CB will be 5 next month. Another reason for the lack of diagnosis is that only certain doctors will prescribe a dyspraxia/DCD diagnosis. Many doctors here in the US are not familiar with the diagnosis. The 3rd reason deals with what getting a diagnosis would actually do for the child or family. Here in the US, neither DCD nor dyspraxia are recognized by school systems as disorders so it can still be a challenge to get services even with the diagnosis. On a side note, if you have a dyspraxia/DCD diagnosis for your child, your child should qualify under the OHI (Other Health Impairment) section for special education services. Besides for services at school, it could be beneficial to have the diagnosis for insurance purposes. Insurance is so far covering the therapies CB needs (minus the high deductible and co-insurance…fun) so that is not an issue. For school, we are working around the lack of a dyspraxia diagnosis by getting a ADD/ADHD diagnosis so he would qualify under OHI. We are also getting an OT eval performed for CB. I feel that at the moment, CB will get the same evaluations and therefore access to the same services he would get if he had the dyspraxia/DCD diagnosis by taking this other route. It would be great if getting a dyspraxia/DCD diagnosis would automatically entitle children to certain special ed services like children with an autistic diagnosis get.
Now, for me, stating that CB has global dyspraxia helps me to have a 2 word description to describe CB’s special needs. I don’t have to go into all the detail about all the different needs he has i.e., speech, fine motor, attention, motor planning, visual tracking, sensory, etc. The term global dyspraxia serves as a great umbrella term that encompasses these conditions. To some parents with autistic children, I state that CB is just off the spectrum. There are a lot of overlapping traits for dyspraxic children and autistic children. When CB was 3, we even took him to a neurologist to confirm he is not autistic. The neurologist stated that he did not believe CB was autistic but that he possessed enough symptoms that he could diagnose him as autistic if we needed it for insurance purposes. We opted not to get the diagnosis but to keep the option open if we needed it. Many of the kids that CB really connects with are autistic children and in many situations, the parents of autistic children have assumed CB is autistic. As CB has grown, several of his autistic-like symptoms have faded. I know for sure at this point in CB’s life that he is not autistic but dyspraxic. I am not big into labels but this is one label that has really helped me understand my child even better, my son’s teachers understand him better, me describe my son to others so they better understand him, and give me a more focused approach to finding and choosing appropriate therapies and education. Having this label, global dyspraxia, helps make his future seem less scary to me.