Dyspraxia

Introduction

Dyspraxia is a term for poor coordination of your muscles.

This is important for reading because it takes very delicate control of the eyes to focus on a point in the text for a fraction of a second and then jump a precise distance to the next group of words. That is how we scan text.

If your child can read single words well but really struggles with lines of text, it is a good indication of mild dyspraxia.

The Cerebellum

Near the middle of the brain is the Cerebellum. It sits around the outside of the brain stem.

It is a very critical part of the brain because it acts like a conductor. All our senses are pouring information into the brain all the time and the cerebellum decides what gets priority treatment and what doesn't.

We have the obvious five senses, but a sixth sense is that of our own body. The very fastest neurones in the body are feeding back information on our physical position. In a professional sports player, these circuits will get greenflagged straight through the cerebellum to help that incredibly subtle control of the body that humans can achieve.

The Solution To Dyspraxia

The rest of us don't need to perform like top flight sportsmen, but we do need a cerebellum functioning reasonably well. And that is easy to achieve by exercising it.

So, if your child displays the symptoms of dyspraxia there are three things to do.

First, check that your child is getting the right vitamins, minerals and oils. I do not take supplements, but we regularly give our children Omega 3 and Omega 6 oils. You can see an almost instant impact.

Second, get a good osteopath to check your child for any imbalances and tensions in the body. They should talk about dyspraxia on their website if they are qualified to do this.

Finally, get your child to do simple exercises to exercise the cerebellum. Here are some examples:

• Stand on one foot, while throwing a ball from hand to hand.
• Stand on one foot and raise your arms to the ceiling and look up, then drop them down again.
• Shut your eyes and do simple movements (being careful not to fall on something sharp)
• Sit on a chair, keep your head still and move a pencil to and fro in front of you while following it steadily with your eyes

The last one in particular will help your child's eye control for reading.

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