Survey of parents of children with dyspraxia
In 1997 the Dyspraxia Foundation conducted a survey of its members. It distributed a questionnaire to find out about the age at which dyspraxia was diagnosed in their children; their school's response to the child's dyspraxia; and the severity of the child's dyspraxia.
Four hundred and fifty-four members completed the questionnaire. The results were as follows:
Age that dyspraxia identified
- Parents were aware of difficulties on average by the time their child was three; a diagnosis of dyspraxia was made on average by the time a child was six and a half; currently the average age of member's children is ten.
- Further banding of the age data revealed:
| Age of child | 0-3yr |
4-11yr |
11yr+ |
No reply |
| When learning difficulty first realised | 65.4% |
33% |
0.4% |
1.1% |
| When first diagnosed dyspraxic | 9.3% |
56.8% |
3.7% |
30.2% |
| Now | n/a |
67.8% |
31.5% |
0.7% |
- Parents were most likely to identify that their child was dyspraxic (25 per cent) followed by educational and clinical psychologists (13.4 per cent), paediatricians (10.7 per cent), speech therapists (9.6 per cent), teachers (9.4 per cent) and occupational therapists (8.9 per cent).
- * Actual diagnosis of dyspraxia was made in over half of cases by one of the following health care professionals: clinical psychologists (18.1 per cent), paediatricians (18.1 per cent), occupational therapists (16.2 per cent). G.P's suggested dyspraxia in 1.8 per cent of cases and offered the diagnosis in 3 per cent of cases.
Dyspraxia in schools
- 62.3 per cent of children surveyed went to state mainstream schools; 16.1 per cent attended private schools; 6.7 per cent were in special needs units in mainstream schools and 9.9 per cent were in special schools. 4.9 per cent were reported as “other” and not specified.
- 25.4 per cent of children were diagnosed as dyspraxic before they started school; 74.6 per cent were not diagnosed by the time they started school.
- The 74.6 per cent of parents who reported their children were not diagnosed as dyspraxic by the time their children began school were then asked what the schools attitude toward their children was prior to the diagnosis. They were allowed to chose as many statements as they felt were appropriate and could choose “great extent”, “some extent” and “not at all”. The results were as follows:
| School's attitude prior to diagnosis | Great extent |
Some extent |
Not at all |
| bad parenting | 13.4% |
25.7% |
60.9% |
| Grow out of it | 34.3% |
45.7% |
20.1% |
| Could try harder | 41% |
34.5% |
24.5% |
| Naughty | 25.1% |
29.4% |
45.5% |
| Wanted to help but didn't know how | 25.4% |
50.7% |
23.9% |
- Parents reported additionally such attitudes as, the child is bright so will manage; the parents are fussy, over anxious, over protective or neurotic; the child has emotional problems; the child has poor eyesight; the child is lazy, a slow learner, below average or stupid; the child has behavioural problems; the parent could not accept that the child was not bright; the child is immature and unready for school; the child is disorganised and useless; the child is highly strung; the school did not know what to do with him.
- Parents were asked how much the school knew about dyspraxia when the diagnosis was made. 45.2 per cent had never heard of it; 39.2 per cent had heard of it but didn't know much; 11.5 per cent heard of it and knew a reasonable amount; 4.1 per cent were very knowledgeable.
- Parents were asked to report on the level of help schools provided when the diagnosis was first made and now:
Level of help |
When first diagnosed |
Now |
No help |
29.3% |
8.7% |
Some help, but not enough |
36.9% |
29.5% |
Helpful |
26% |
41.9% |
Could not be better |
7.8% |
19.9% |
- We asked parents what types of help their children's school provide. The following types of help were received (in rank order): one to one (49.5 per cent), use of laptops/keyboards (22.2 per cent); unspecified other (19.7 per cent); general understanding, awareness of problem (14.1 per cent); extra tuition (10.5 per cent); speech therapist (10.6 per cent); encouragement/confidence building (9.5 per cent); small classes (9.2 per cent); physiotherapy/exercises (8.9 per cent); classroom assistant/helper (7.8 per cent); occupational therapy (5.1 per cent); extra time allowed for exams/homework (4.3 per cent); sloping desk (1.4 per cent); special needs teacher, more help getting organised, social skills training (.8 per cent).
- We asked parents what type of help they would like schools to provide. The most popular was one to one help (26.9 per cent) followed by use of laptops/keyboards (25.6 per cent); general understanding, awareness of problem (18 per cent); physiotherapy/exercises (10.5 per cent); occupational therapy (9.2 per cent); extra handwriting lessons (6 per cent); extra tuition (5.7 per cent); speech therapist (5.4 per cent); encouragement/confidence building (3.2 per cent); classroom assistant/helper (2.2 per cent); extra time allowed for exams/homework, more help getting organised (1.9 per cent); social skills training (1.6 per cent); sloping desks (.6 per cent).
- When asked if their children were happy at school 33.5 per cent reported that they were very happy; 36 per cent were fairly happy; 17.5 per cent were neither happy or unhappy; 9.3 per cent were unhappy and 3.6 per cent were very unhappy.