Happy New Year!

I know that sounds so funny since it is January 25, but as always times flies – even more so this winter for us in Edmonton, Alberta.

We had a beautiful Christmas season with just the right amount of snow for outdoor activities and just the right temperature to allow us to be out until the children exhausted themselves and us. Then… came January.

It started to snow, and then snow, and then snow. Today is the first day in January that we have had no snow! Apparently we have not broken any records yet, but are close to breaking records from 1920.  Thinking about that makes me giggle in some ways, as all these years I’ve been telling my kids we had it so much harder and so much more snow. Perhaps we were not too far off?

This January has been hard on everyone in our city. The driving has been so stressful, there are so many getting stuck, so many of us late for work, for school, for appointments, and so on. What we had hoped to do, we can’t; even walking our children to school is a struggle.  Walking is a huge challenge. It is hard to use our limbs through snow that is soft, yet so hard to plow through. It is so incredibly slippery our balance is off and we often fall.  Many of us are feeling very frustrated and stressed.

When we speak of SPD we think of sensory. Occasionally we have spoken about  dyspraxia (motor disorder) and postural disorder (low core stability; unable to hold one’s body up).  With the weather the last three weeks being what it has been, I have heard many of my friends sharing my frustration with how we cannot do things, or when we do them, it takes so much more effort, or that by the time we go to do them, you want to give up as everyone else has seemed to make it through the traffic light except you and your vehicle.

That is what it is like for those living with with dyspraxia 24/7. They wish they could do what everyone else can do so well, to be able to process at the same speed as their classmates. While others are processing the answer to the teacher’s question, those with dyspraxia are concentrating first on what the question means; by the time they get the question figured out and pull the answer, the teacher has already moved onto another question.

Just recently my 90 year old mother had a mini stroke.  Many around her saw dementia, depression, and old age. Thanks to my knowledge, gained from our experiences with our son, I was able to listen and observe with different glasses. I heard apraxia; I heard dyspraxia. With that information, the doctor made a referral to the O.T. department to have an assessment done. Sure enough, it was found that Mom has severe dyspraxia and dysphagia (swallowing disorder). Supports are now being put in place, and Mom’s depression has lifted. What was seen as dementia is now recognized as behavioural responses to her stroke which caused the dyspraxia.  

This is the impact of awareness, education, support and collaboration. Had it not been for our son and his challenging journeys with SPD and Dyspraxia, we never would have been able to help Mom. What a great feeling to know the little guy my Mom worried so much about, was in fact helping her years later.

The miracle is to know that so many children with SPD have praxis issues or could have dyspraxia. So much of how they are being seen or judged or being diagnosed with, (eg.) a cognitive delay, could be a result of not being properly assessed.

How did we all feel for the last three weeks, waking up to know that it was another hard day, that no matter what we did, it was going to be so hard? So many friends in warm locations just thought I was being a grumpy, nervous wreck. I was…but it was my environment and conditions that were causing that behaviour.

Here is a checklist from a website I highly recommend.  http://www.dyspraxiafoundation.org.uk/services/gu_symptoms.php

Contact your local Occupational Therapy Associations to find an O.T. in your neighbourhood and have your child properly assessed.  http://www.caot.ca/

Cheers

Lori Fankhanel