Welcome to the ADA.
IMPORTANT NEWS
ADA OFFICE: The ADA office is currently unmanned and will be so until further notice due to volunteer health issues. If you wish to contact the ADA can you please do so by email at the following address, information@dyspraxia.com.au The emails will only be accessed once each week so please expect some delay in a responce. We sincerely apologise for the inconvenience this has and will cause but the situation is beyond our control.
To our members we need you to know that until this situation is rectified all contact with the ADA and any corespondence, including newsletters is to be by email. For those members who have not received our latest isues of the newsletters this may be attributed to problems with our previous ISP or you may not have provided us with your email address. If either reason applies please let us know. We thank you for your patience and understanding.
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What's NEW - The ADA is now on FACEBOOK. This group is for ADA members only.
Parents Wanted! To complete a survey about speech pathology availability. The survey will help speech pathologists plan services for children around Australia. To find out more go to the survey website at http://www2.fhs.usyd.edu.au/csd/research_participants_required_.htm Please contact Dr. Tricia McCabe at tricia.mccabe@sydney.edu.au if you would like more information. This survey has been approved by the Human Research Ethics Committee of the University of Sydney (ref 12280).
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LET'S TALK ABOUT DYSPRAXIA
What Is Dyspraxia?
- Dyspraxia is a neurologically based developmental disability which is present from birth
- Dyspraxia is a motor planning disorder, not a muscular deficit. A child knows what they want their body to do but can't get their body to do it.
- There are three (3) types of Developmental Dyspraxia - Oral, Verbal and Motor.
- A child with Dyspraxia can have one or a combination of all three types of Dyspraxia and in varying degrees of severity
- Dyspraxia is a hidden handicap. Children with this disability appear the same as any other child. It is only when a skill is performed that the disability is noticeable.
- Dyspraxia is believed to be an immaturity of parts of the motor cortex (area of the brain) that prevents messages from being properly transmitted to the body.
- Dyspraxia affects up to 10% of the population with approximately 70% of those affected being boys.
- Dyspraxia does not impact on intelligence, children with Dyspraxia have average or above average intelligence
- Dyspraxia can impact on behaviour and social skills
- Dyspraxia is a specific learning disability
What is Oral Dyspraxia? - Oral dyspraxia is a difficulty with planning and executing non-speech sounds, such as blowing, sucking or individual tongue/lip movements. This may indirectly affect speech and/or swallowing skills. A child with Oral Dyspraxia may dribble profusely, have difficulty licking an ice-cream and may have a preference for either soft or hard textured foods.
What is Verbal Dyspraxia? - Verbal Dyspraxia is a speech disorder that affects the programming, sequencing and initiating of movements required to make speech sounds.
Children with Verbal Dyspraxia may:
- Display highly unintelligible speech
- Simplify words eg. “bur“ for “burger
- Have inconsistent speech patterns
- Move sounds in a word eg. “tobe“ for “boat“
- Exhibit “lost“ or searching movements of the tongue and lips as they endeavour to find the position to make a sound
- Have delayed expressive language
- Adopt a complex gesture system to aid communication skills
- Have difficulty with sequencing words, and sounds in words eg. “Pataka“
What is Motor Dyspraxia? - Motor Dyspraxia is a difficulty in planning, sequencing and then executing the correct movement to perform age appropriate skills in a smooth and coordinated manner at will or on command.
Children with Motor Dyspraxia may have difficulty with:
- Learning a new skill
- Coordinated movement
- Handwriting
- Consistent performance
- Age appropriate skills
- Generalising learnt skills
- Timing and rhythm
- Learning rules
- Responding quickly
- Spatial organisation
- Problem solving
- Using appropriate cues
- Analysing what is needed for task performance
- Preparing for the next stage in task performance
Where to next?
- Do you have, or know of someone with a child who has Dyspraxia and would like to learn more about this disability?
- Are you interested in starting an ADA support group in your local area?
- Would you like to access the full range of our services?
- Are you seeking support or training?
If so, please contact Head Office on 0245 776 220 or email us at information@dyspraxia.com.au and we will send you a free information package.
Donations
The ADA is a self-funded, charitable and not for profit organisation which is manned by volunteers and relies heavily on support from sponsors and donations to continue its work.
Your assistance will help us to:
- keep our doors open
- raise awareness of Dyspraxia and associated learning difficulties
- operate our phone HELP-Line
- initiate and maintain parent support groups
- develop resources to assist children with this disability
- develop 'self-help' training programs for parents and volunteers
- identify gaps in services
- provide therapy services
- build a special school
If you would like to assist us as a sponsor or would like to make a donation to our organisation, please contact Christine Meredith - CEO on 0245 776220 or email information@dyspraxia.com.au
All donations over $2 are tax deductible and gratefully appreciated.
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