Dyspraxia
SPLD TEST EVALUATION
COMMIT TEE (STEC)
GERALDINE PRICE, JULIA KENDER,
JANET SKINNER
Overview
Discussion workshop on where we are in assessment and
support of dyspraxia
 Education or Health?
 Practical interventions
 Working towards a definition
 Assessment tools
 The way forward
Controversy
 Confusion among practitioners – very mixed messages
 Dyspraxia or DCD?
 Education or Health?
 Who is qualified to assess?
 What are we looking for?
Overlap with other SpLDs
 Commonly agreed that dyspraxia often overlaps with
other SpLDs
 Many challenges similar to that of dyslexic students –
disorganisation; time keeping; managing workload; notetaking and handwriting organising ideas in written form;
memory and attention span; visual & oral difficulties;
maths & numerical
 Less likely to have difficulties with spelling and reading
Challenges in HE?
 What do you consider are the main challenges in HE?
 How does dyspraxia support differ from dyslexia support?
 How can we work with students?
Challenges in HE
Some examples:
 Practical work – laboratories/placement
 Personal organisation – daily living; orientation around
campus
 Work organisation; keeping to deadlines; following visual
timetables
 Social skills – difficulty with social communication; group
work
Definitions
Consider the definition
 What is useful?
 What is relevant?
 What would you add or omit from this definition?
 How important is the label/definition?
 How important are emotional issues?
Importance of case history
Questionnaires –
 http://www.boxofideas.org/
then choose ‘Practical skills at school: Further Education
and University’
(Amanda Kirby)
 http://www.dyspraxiafoundation.org.uk/services/ad_sym
ptoms.php
 http://www.brainhe.com/students/types/dyspraxia.html
Example of questionnaire
 What questionnaires are in use in your institution? How
helpful are they?
 Consider the questionnaire
 How could this be used in your institution?
Assessment tools
 What assessment tools can we use as practitioners?
 How can we separate out medical and educational
aspects of dyspraxia without involving multiple
assessment?
 What conclusions can be drawn without a medical
assessment of motor co-ordination difficulties?
Assessment
 Questionnaire to gain history
 SASC diagnostic assessment tools
 Beery Test Visual Motor co-ordination
 Test of Visual Perception Skills (TVPS)
 Handwriting assessment/speed compared with speed on
computer
Final Considerations
 Specific learning difficulty consistent with dyspraxic
profile? Specific learning difficulty of a dyspraxic nature?
 What guidance do you think would be helpful for
assessors when updating SASC guidelines for assessors?
Contact details
 Dr Geraldine Price
 Julia Kender
 Janet Skinner
gap@soton.ac.uk
j.kender@soton.ac.uk
jps2@soton.ac.uk
Further reading
 Drew, S (2005) Developmental Co-ordination Disorder in Adults London,
Whurr Publishers
 Grant, D (2007) That’s the way I think: Dyslexia and Dyspraxia explained
Abingdon, Routledge
 Kirby A, Edwards L, Sugden D, Rosenblum S, The development and
standardization of the Adult Developmental Co-ordination
Disorders/Dyspraxia Checklist (ADC) :Research in Developmental Disabilities
31 (2010) 131–139:Elsevier
 Hulme, C & Snowling MJ (2009) Developmental Disorders of Language
Learning & Cognition Chichester, Wiley-Blackwell
Further Reading contd
 http://www.boxofideas.org/
 http://www.danda.org.uk/
 http://www.dcd-uk.org/index.html
(Leeds Consensus 2006)
 http://www.nha-handwriting.org.uk/index.htm