Support the Dyspraxia Foundation’s 30th Anniversary Appeal this Christmas!
More and more people are moving away from sending Christmas cards and are donating the money they would have spent on the cards and the postage.
The Dyspraxia Foundation would be delighted if you chose us to donate to this year.
Mark Robinson: Representing adults with dyspraxia on the Board of Trustees
Trustees’ Week: 12-16 November 2018
What are trustees? Trustees are the people in charge of a charity. They help to make the UK the sixth most giving country in the world. They play a vital role, volunteering their time and working together to make important decisions about the charity’s work.
Eleanor Howes, CEO and Sophie Kayani, Chair of Trustees would like to thank our members and supporters for making Dyspraxia Awareness Week 2018 such a great success. Our focus during the week was specifically on the teenage years and their mental health. We saw some very moving case studies shared and were contacted by many people thanking us for sharing. Thanks goes to the parents and teenagers who were willing to highlight their stories, it’s not always easy to be so honest and open. We were extremely lucky that media coverage increased dramatically this year due to the co-incidence of the new Doctor Who series featuring a character, Ryan who has dyspraxia/DCD. This has given us the platform to increase awareness amongst the general public and improve understanding of the condition, which can only be a good thing.
To extend Dyspraxia Awareness, this morning trustee Sally Payne and youth member Ben, appeared on BBC Breakfast to discuss Dyspraxia and Doctor Who! Thank you to the BBC for providing us with the clip which you can watch below:
Alfie Aged 14 – A letter To The Teachers
Dear Teachers,
I thought it would be helpful to let you know a bit about me and my experience of dyspraxia because dyspraxia can be hard to understand unless you have read a lot about it, or know someone with it. And because everyone is different.
Last night, thanks to our long term supporters Norton Rose Fulbright, we hosted an event to close Dyspraxia Awareness Week 2018, we also introduced our new ‘Youth Champions’ and released an eBook written by members of our Youth Group.
Marian talks about her experience of supporting her 11 year old son
My Son has always been difficult in nursery and school situations. He is always getting into trouble with teachers. I believe that is because he ‘looks normal’ and has always been very tall. They say that he talks when he shouldn’t, doesn’t pay attention, lacks concentration, fidgets, doesn’t sit up straight, makes noises, etc.
To start day 6 of Dyspraxia Awareness Week, we are proud to bring to you our updated Drivers Information Sheet!
The information sheet has been updated, and includes lots of tips and advice about taking that step of learning to drive with Dyspraxia/DCD.
Trustee Sally Payne sat down with Judi Smith to discuss mental health matters to teenagers with dyspraxia and their parents.
“Every teenager gets a bit anxious, but teenagers with dyspraxia have so many extra things to be worried about. When do everyday worries become a mental health issue – anxiety.”
Lucia talks about her experience of supporting her 12 year old son
My son is our first child. As a baby he was generally happy and content. He didn’t crawl, and walked when he was 15 months old. We did not think this was unusual or concerning. He went to nursery from 9months of age, where he enjoyed the company of other children, but he did not like loud noises, messy play or being dirty. He cried everyday when I left him at nursery (where he remained until the age of 4!), even though we were told he didn’t take long to settle and was very happy during the day. Potty training took a while, but we were always told this was not unusual “being a boy”. He started talking very early and we thought this was great (“isn’t he clever…”); he did stammer for a bit; we thought it was more pressure of speech than a stammer and didn’t seek help. Our daughter was born when he was two, and soon we started to notice differences in their development. A bit of this was put down to “girls are so different”, so we did not think much about this. He remembers his time in nursery as very happy.