The coordination disorders rehabilitation

The coordination disorders rehabilitation: who’s concerned?

Your child shows difficulties when it comes to learning to walk or to grip? It may be a DCD. The Developmental Coordination Disorder is a syndrome characterized by motor difficulties. In this article, we will introduce you to the coordination disorders rehabilitation: why would you need it? Which professionals are qualified to help you and how to meet them? You’ll learn more by pursuing your reading!

Why does my child

need coordination disorders rehabilitation?

When your child suffers from coordination disorders, such as dyspraxia, it can manifest in school and learning difficulties, especially when it comes to reading and writing. We can then make a diagnosis: the child is affected with Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD).

A DCD encompasses each and every learning disorders, such as:

Dys disorders, such as dyslexia, dysphasia, dysorthography or discalculia;
Written language disorders, which also affect the capability of the child to automate specific abilities.

These disorders are often caused by neurological, cognitive or psychomotor dysfunctions, which impede the development of oral or written language.

To help your child to overcome these difficulties, such as tracking issues of trouble to organize, it is important to make an appointment in order to make an early diagnosis. It allows the identification of a disorder, through orthophonic, neuropsychological or psychomotor assessments.

the assessment

of coordination disorders rehabilitation needs

Our COP9 professionals will perform a set of tests to evaluate a patient’s DCD. These assessment recuts three main families:

The coordination and motor skill assessment;
The gestural praxis and visuoconstructive assessment;
The visual perceptual motor assessment (which is about vision and kinesthesia)

To make a diagnosis suited for the child, the psychomotor therapist selects the tests and tools based on the objectives, child’s characteristics, but also the updates of the past sessions and the motor disorders observed during the exam.

We kindly remind you that the assessment of coordination disorders rehabilitation needs is painless and performed in your presence. It simply consists in an observation of the child’s coordination problems while facing a situation or an object.

The main objective is to create a personalized session in order to help the child’s coordination, and to compensate for the daily difficulty he or she encounters because of his or her learning disorder.

Which professional can take the coordination disorder rehabilitation in charge?

Our ophthalmologist, Dr. Stéphanie Zwillinger, diagnoses a potential disorder. She then will orient you toward a multidisciplinary care pathway in order to rehabilitate your child’s coordination disorders.

The speech therapists can then work on the oral and written language disorders, phonology, and the gesture, in order to improve the verbal expression comprehension.

The occupational therapists and psychomotor therapists can also heal your child to develop his or her motor and sensory abilities, in order to improve his or her tracking in space capability and fine motor coordination.

With the help of these professionals, as well as neuropsychologists and orthoptists, your struggling child can gradually overcome his or her coordination disorders. He or she can then thrive in his or her motor and intellectual development.

What are the possible adjustments

in the context of coordination disorders rehabilitation?

Specific adjustments can be brought to the school environment of your child affected with coordination difficulties. To support these pedagogic adjustments, advisers can be put in place as a part of education professionals workers.

It is also possible to put in place learning strategies adapted to his/her needs and habits. For example, a computer-based tool to help him or her in his/her school learning.

To summarize, children affected with disorders suffer from severe difficulties at school, and may experience school failure: which is why it is a necessity to offer a proper coordination disorder rehabilitation in an adapted and fully equipped practice such as COP9.

As a conclusion

In case you have any doubts, it is crucial to perform a screening and to make a diagnosis in order to put in place an adapted coordination disorder rehabilitation. The main goal will be to compensate for the difficulties shown in the language and cognitive functions development. We accompany children with DCD by means of our pluridisciplinary COP9 practice: ophthalmology, orthoptics and psychomotor… And finally, do not hesitate to follow us on Instagram and Facebook to find out our latest news!

To be discovered

Treatment of psychomotor disorders

Early detection of a delay or disorder in development and communication allows the process of treating psychomotor disorders to begin

Dyspraxia in children

Learn more to help them better! Dyspraxia is one of the chronic neurological disorders that appear from early childhood. This

The coordination disorders rehabilitation