What Is Dysgraphia? - YouTube

Dysgraphia is a learning disability that affects writing, which requires a complex set of motor and information processing skills.

Dysgraphia makes the act of writing difficult. It can lead to problems with spelling, poor handwriting, and putting thoughts on paper.

People with dysgraphia can have trouble organizing letters, numbers, and words on a line or page. This can result partly from:

• Visual-spatial difficulties: trouble processing what the eye sees
• Language processing difficulty: trouble processing and making sense of what the ear hears

As with all learning disabilities (LD), dysgraphia is a lifelong challenge, although how it manifests may change over time.

A student with this disorder can benefit from specific accommodations in the learning environment. Extra practice learning the skills required to be an accomplished writer can also help.

Read more about Dysgraphia

Dyspraxia and Motor Skills: Interactive Video Games Help to Sharpen

Mothers tell their children not to play video games because they believe that the games have a major impact on the child's brain, but now researchers have found that interactive video games improve motor skills among preschool children.

Researchers from Deakin University and the University of Wollongong have found that pre-schoolers who play interactive video games have better motor skills. The discovery was made while studying the link between electronic games and children's fundamental movement skills.

During the study, researchers monitored the physical activity levels and movement skills of 53 children aged between three and six years. Then they asked the children's parents to provide a report of the time spent playing interactive games such as Nintendo Wii/Eyetoy and non-interactive electronic games such as Nintendo DS/ Gameboy in a typical week.

Among the 53 preschool students, 35 per cent played non-interactive electronic games while the other 23 per cent played interactive games.

The study found that children who spent more time playing interactive electronic games were more competent in object control skills, such as kicking, catching, rolling, and bouncing a ball, but there was no association with locomotor skills such as hopping, jumping, running.

The findings have been published in the journal Perceptual and Motor Skills.

"While we found that greater time spent playing interactive electronic games is associated with higher object control skills in these young children, we cannot say why," said Dr Lisa Barnett, researcher at the Deakin University's School of Health and Social Development.

Dr Lisa Barnett claims that interactive game players have higher object control skills because the games help develop these types of skills. Playing interactive electronic games may also help eye-hand coordination.

Previously, researchers had found that children with better fundamental movement skills became more active adolescents compared to children who have poorer movement skills.

"What our findings do point to is a need to investigate further to determine if playing these games improves object control skills or if children with greater object control skill proficiency prefer and play these games," Dr Barnett said.

Conclusions: If the relationship between object control skill and physical activity is viewed as a ‘‘positive feedback loop,’’ skill development and increasing physical activity should simultaneously be targeted in physical activity interventions. Increasing perceived sport competence should also be an intervention focus.

View the paper here

Teenage Depression: SPARX Game as effective as Traditional Treatment

An innovative computer-based intervention for depressed young people, developed by researchers from The University of Auckland, has been shown to be at least as effective as standard treatments mainly comprising face-to-face therapy.

A research team led by Associate Professor Sally Merry developed and trialled the intervention called SPARX with the aim of giving young people easier, lower cost access to treatment.

In a study published in the British Medical Journal (BMJ) they assessed the effectiveness of SPARX in 24 sites around New Zealand, including youth clinics, schools and general practices.

Half of the young people participating used the new game and half received standard treatment through their doctor, school counsellor or other provider. SPARX was shown to be at least as good as the standard treatments.

SPARX uses CD-Rom based computer gaming to teach self-help for depression. It includes an interactive 3D fantasy game to teach young people the skills they need to cope with challenges and manage their mood.

In contrast to many other e-therapies, SPARX has been designed to help young people learn through action in a virtual world. It is based on cognitive behavioural therapy, a proven therapeutic approach.

“Using computer technology that young people are comfortable with is one way of making therapy more accessible, practical, and hopefully more fun,” says Dr Merry.

It has been designed to be easily accessed by young people directly or to be delivered easily in primary care settings. In 2011, SPARX won a UN World Summit Award recognising creativity and innovation in e-health interventions.

 

Depression is common among young people internationally and accessing help can be difficult. One in five New Zealanders will have experienced clinical depression by their eighteenth birthday.

Three quarters of young people with depression never receive treatment. “We want to intervene earlier and more effectively,” says Dr Merry.

SPARX was initiated by researchers, clinicians, and learning technologists at the University’s Werry Centre for Child and Adolescent Mental Health in the Department of Psychological Medicine.

It was developed with input from Māori, Pacific people, and other cultural groups in New Zealand. The programme was created with the assistance of a local game development company, Metia Interactive.

A number of actors, musicians and artists have generously donated their time and skills to the project.

The work was funded by the NZ Ministry of Health as part of the Primary Health Care Strategy to build and strengthen the capacity of the primary care sector to respond to mental health needs, and in this case adolescent depression.

More information on SPARX is available on www.sparx.org.nz.

Spherovelo: Curvy ride-on aims to improve toddlers' balance and motor skills

We bet you can remember your first bike. We also bet it looked nothing like the Spherovelo - a sphere-based ride-on for children as young as one year old.

Makers Early Rider, from Henley-on-Thames, UK, say the Spherovelo has been designed to improve your little one's balance and motor skills, making it the perfect pre-cursor to a "normal" balance bike.

And those curves are not just there for the good looks, the bike has been created around the idea that spheres are better than traditional wheels because they are harder to fall off. In theory this means that a slight loss of balance should see the bike simply move to the side… rather than toppling over and leaving you with a crying toddler.

Designer Andy Loveland says that the idea for the Spherovelo first came to him about two years ago and he's spent the past 12 months working with some clever industrial designers to take his sketches and turn them into something you'll wish had been around when you were young enough to ride one.

In its ride-on stage (for riders at the younger end of the one to two-and-a-half age bracket) the two large spheres - which are encased in an extremely light, hard wearing nylon shell with a molded foam saddle - are supported by two stabilizing balls. While preventing the bike from tipping over, these mean it retains the ability to move in any direction.



Once little Johnny or Jill has mastered whizzing around the house, the stabilizing balls can then be removed to convert the Spherovelo into bike mode and make it unstable - forcing the young rider to utilize their developing motor skills if they want to continue scooting around and having fun.

A spokesperson for Early Rider said: "By replacing wheels with a certain arrangement of spheres we've been able to simulate a bike but with increased lateral forgiveness so that it becomes very difficult for a child to fall off or fall onto."

The Spherovelo is due to go on sale next month and will retail at around £69 (approx. US$103).

A Box of Many Ideas: Parents' Support Website for Dyslexia, Dyspraxia and DCD

The one stop shop for 1000s of ideas, guidance and information for parents of children who suffer from Dyslexia, Dyspraxia and /or DCD. 

The website boast that it provides guidance on everything from early years to employment. Click on the pictures to visit the website or follow the links below.

Practical skills and information for parents concerning Education, schools and employment

Practical skills that parents and carers can use at home or outside school time. 

Move 627 is a website that examines the transitional stages that children go through in their lives, offering information and support.

To learn more about supporting parents and children with Dyslexia, Dyspraxia, DCD, ADHD, etc., be sure to visit the website of Move627 and their sister site: www.dyscovery.co.uk

The websites are supported by Prof. Amanda Kirby: A registered Medical Practitioner who specialises in Community Paediatrics and Psychiatry. Prof Kirby has particular interest in Dyslexia, Dyspraxia and DCD and is currently the patron of the Dyspraxia Association in New Zealand and medical advisor to the Dyspraxia Foundation in the UK and Ireland.

She is also a medical advisor to a developmental disorders clinic in Singapore, the UK Neurofibromatosis Association and is on the Royal College of General Practitioners Learning Disability Working Party.

Non-Verbal learning disorder (NLD or NVLD)

A nonverbal learning disorder or nonverbal learning disability (NLD or NVLD) is a condition characterized by a significant discrepancy between higher verbal and lower motor, visuo-spatial, and social skills on an IQ test. Some proponents of the category believe that this discrepancy is attributable to dysfunction in the right cerebral hemisphere.


NLD involves deficits in perception, coordination, socialisation, non-verbal problem-solving and understanding of humour, along with well-developed rote memory. As most people with Asperger syndrome (AS) fit the criteria for NLD, a diagnosis of AS is often preferred.


In this instance, some researchers assert that an AS diagnosis is more clinically useful than an NLD diagnosis, and argue that NLD would be an example of excessive diagnostic splitting. However, NLD can also occur with other disorders. However, like Asperger syndrome, NLD exists on a spectrum, and those affected can experience it in a range of ways.


Those with an NLD diagnosis can experience some or all of the symptoms, and to varying degrees. Ongoing debate surrounds the relationship between Asperger syndrome and NLD, as research on the condition is ongoing and procedures can differ from AS research.

Symptoms

Non-verbal communication

People with this disability may misunderstand non-verbal communications, or they may understand the communications but be unable to formulate an appropriate response. This can make establishing and maintaining social contacts difficult.


Eye contact can also be difficult for people with NLD, either because they are uncomfortable with maintaining it or because they do not remember that others expect it. Similarly, knowing when and how to use physical contact and recognizing emotions in others and expressing them for oneself can be problematic.

Verbal communication

People with NLD will often tend to lapse into "cocktail-speech," talking too much and too quickly. People with NLD have strong verbal communication skills and must often rely on verbal communication as their main method of gathering information.

Trying to process too many non-verbal stimuli can confuse them.

People with NLD often have strong verbal skills, and learn how to use those to compensate.

Numerical and spatial awareness

Arithmetic and mathematics can be very difficult for people with NLD, and they often have problems with spatial awareness. Problematic areas may include:

• Recognising faces
• Paying attention in noisy environments
• Navigation
• In mathematics: the confusion of X-axis and Y-axis
• Remembering the names and locations of places
• Map reading, or plotting or remembering routes. People with NLD are often best-served by giving landmarks along with repeated directions.
• Estimating the speed of cars while crossing the road
• Self-awareness of where their body is(frequently bump into other people and objects)
• Backing out a car

Motor

People with NLD often have motor difficulties. This can manifest in their walking and running, which are sometimes stiff, or in difficulty balancing. They may also be more likely to run into things, due to judging distances poorly.

Fine motor skills can also develop abnormally, causing difficulty with writing, drawing, and tying shoelaces. NLD sufferers are often labeled as "clumsy" or "stiff".

Anxiety

People with NLD, more than many others, fear failure. They may feel that they have to do too much at once, and then do not know where to start. This allows them to stagnate, and then do nothing. Sometimes they try to multitask and again end up doing nothing, which can lead to frustration.

They may experience the world around them as a chaos, the actions that they must perform well and quickly creating a sense of helplessness.


Clumsiness in performing tasks may be criticised by teachers or in the workplace, causing further fear of failure.

There is a high incidence of suicide in the NLD population.

Research Study: Children's songs, clapping games improve motor and cognitive skills

Study: Children's songs, clapping games improve motor and cognitive skills

Children's songs and clapping games can develop a person's motor and cognitive skills even long after childhood, a recent Israeli study suggests.

The study, by Dr. Idit Solkin of Ben-Gurion University's arts faculty, found a direct link between children's songs and clapping games and the development of important skills, both in children and in young adults, including university students.

Study Period
Solkin conducted the study over a period of five years by interviewing school and kindergarten teachers and visiting their classrooms, where she joined the children in singing. Her original goal was to figure out why children are fascinated by singing and clapping up until the end of third grade, when these pastimes are abruptly abandoned and replaced with sport.

"This fact explains a natural evolutionary process the children are going through," she said. "The clapping and singing games appear naturally in children's lives around the age of seven, and disappear around the age of 10. In this narrow window, these activities serve as a developmental tool that reflects many of the children's needs - emotional, sociological, physiological and cognitive. It's a transition stage that leads them to the next phases of growing up."

Motor and Cognitive Skills
Though the relationship between music and intellectual development in children has been studied extensively - prompting countless parents to obtain a Mozart record or two for their young, just in case - Solkin said that no in-depth study had previously been made of the effect that singing and clapping games have on children's motor and cognitive skills.

"We found that about 20 percent of children in the first, second and third grade take up these songs and demonstrate skills absent in children who don't take part in such activities," she said. "We found that children who clap and sing write better, with fewer spelling errors and nicer handwriting. Their teachers also believe their social integration is better than that of children who don't take part in these games."

School Study
As part of the study, Solkin went to several elementary school classrooms and engaged the children in singing and clapping activities over a period of 10 weeks. "Within a very short period of time, the children who until then hadn't taken part in such activities caught up in their cognitive abilities to those who did," she said.

This finding led Solkin to conclude that singing and clapping games should be made an integral part of education for children aged six to 10, for the purpose of motor and cognitive training.

University Students
She also found that singing and clapping games have a clear effect on adults: University students who filled out her questionnaires reported that after taking up such games, they became more focused and less tense.

"These techniques are associated with childhood, and many adults treat them as a joke," she said. "But once they take them up, they report feeling more alert and in a better mood."

Improving Motor Skills: Helping Kids Take Care of Their Healthy Smiles

Sometims children with reduced motor skills struggle a little more with daily activities. Fine motor issues can get in the way of easily accomplishing basic tasks, like dressing, bathing and brushing teeth.

Physical and occupational therapies are a big help when it comes to helping children with these problems. They can also learn how to accomplish some of the harder tasks, like buttons, catches and zippers. Sometimes these therapies also help children become more independent or consistent with their personal hygiene.

Is Brushing Teeth the Exception?
Brushing teeth involves a lot of motor skills. Children need to have good proprioceptive awareness, meaning they need to know where their bodies are in space, in order to comfortably aim the toothbrush into the mouth.

It also involves a skill called “ crossing the midline,” meaning kids need to be able to comfortably and confidently reach a hand from one side of the body to the other and use brush with accuracy.

Because of the difficulty in brushing, parents of children with motor skills deficits often end up brushing their childrens’ teeth for them, and for much longer than they might for other children.