Happy New Year from all of us at the Dyspraxia Foundation. Thanks so much to everyone for your support in raising awareness and fundraising throughout the year. It has been a packed and productive year launching our Teens into Adulthood campaign and our “Do it for Dyspraxia” appeal.
Thousands of families contact us every year for help and advice with the daily challenges of coping with dyspraxia and it is vital we ensure that support is available for them. This has been strengthened with recent core funding from the Garfield Weston Foundation and Crispin Odey.
Our corporate partners Norton Rose have been most supportive and our Patron Lady Isabella Naylor-Leyland has been a constant presence for the Foundation.
Looking forward to 2010 we will be focusing on the needs of teenagers with dyspraxia and will be campaigning for greater recognition of the condition from public services and policymakers in particular.
We always welcome feedback, so do get in touch with your news and views. Email us at info@dyspraxiafoundation.org.uk
RESEARCH PARTICIPANTS WANTED!
What is it like to be a teenager with dyspraxia?
Sally Payne is looking for volunteers to help in a research project which aims to find out what it is like to be a teenager with Dyspraxia living in the UK.
Volunteers will come from two age groups, for the study itself we need 10 teenagers who will be aged 13 at the start of the study. Then to ensure we are asking the right questions we need a “research reference group” made up of six older teenagers/adultsaged between 16 and 30.
If you would like more information on this research project please download the PDF's below.
More details on the reference group.
More details on participant recruitment.
DLA – Saved for some
The Dyspraxia Foundation this week added its voice to the protest about a Government announcement that the payment of Disability Living Allowance (DLA) and Attendance Allowance will not be made to over 65's under the new proposals for the National Care Service.
Chair Sally Payne said: “We have already raised our concerns about the changes to benefits and support for all people with disabilities and sent a letter to the Minister for disabled People Jonathan Shaw. These benefits are a vital lifeline and if they were withdrawn it could cause great hardship to people with disabilities and carers and families. We urge the Government to look at this again and continue the financial support”
We urge all our supporters to respond to the Care Green paper or Email them directly. Rouse people to sign the No 10 petition, which is gathering real momentum again: it now has over 19,000 signatures and is at number 8 out of over four and a half thousand petitions on the site. Not bad going for a petition that has been running for less than two months. Visit the petition now.
Tell your MP what you think or, better still, go and visit them and tell them face-to-face.
Dyspraxia Foundation survey highlights national support needed
for teenagers in Awareness Week, 10th – 17th October.
This week marks the launch of a year long campaign by the Dyspraxia Foundation to raise awareness of the complex problems that teenagers and young adults with dyspraxia face in their everyday lives. The campaign will highlight the challenges that teenagers and young adults with dyspraxia experience coping with everyday activities that others take for granted such as keeping upright when travelling on a bus, using a vegetable peeler safely and tying a pair of shoe laces. Experience and research show that dyspraxia is a life-long condition, yet information and support services tend to focus on children under 11 years of age. We know that the type of support needed by teenagers/young adults is different to that provided for younger children. We also know that without proper help and support teenagers with dyspraxia are five times more likely to experience psychiatric problems by the age of sixteen than other people of their age. Conversely, we also know that people who are supported can do very well in further education and in the workplace.
During the next 12 months we want to find out what matters to teenagers and young adults with dyspraxia. We want to highlight the social and economic cost of not supporting young people with dyspraxia and we also want to showcase what people with dyspraxia can achieve if their difficulties are understood and they are adequately supported.
If you have any stories to share about living with dyspraxia as a teenager or young adult please contact us or complete a Case Study Form now.
Please keep checking our website to find out more about news, events and resources that we are developing throughout the year or email us to ask for a supply of leaflets and posters to help us raise awareness.
Some related links:
Findings from a national consultation with young people living with dyspraxia
Dyspraxia Foundation survey highlights national support needed for teenagers in Awareness Week
Liam's story - Beyond Boundaries: Across the Andes
Classroom guidleines for seconday school teachers
