🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <ZsrNMAASfEt4EwQK@ghastly.demon.co.uk>, 'Dungeon' Dave
<Dungeon@SpamNot.Here> writes
[]
>Numerical dyslexia is called "dyspraxia" but this tends to be less
                               ^^^^^^^^^ *not so*, there is a word for
it, which others may know off hand.  Dyspraxia is something else again,
and then some.

>common. Letters tend to lack the natural progression in numbers
>and figures, so a fairly nimble mind is able to fill in the gaps for
>missing values. It is also realised that parts of mathematics
>concern the search for the missing term, so abilities in this area
>can overcome initial gaps from the outset.
[]

I've been following this thread with considerable interest because one
of my sons has dyspraxia.

Dyspraxia: An impairment or immaturity of the organisation of movement.
Associated with this there may be problems of language, perception, and
thought.

Dyspaxia: Poor praxis or motor planning.  A less severe, but more common
dysfunction than apraxia (the lack of praxis), it is often related to
poor somatosensory processing.

I believe 'praxis' comes from the Greek for movement... John?

Basically his fine motor skills are shot, and he has always been
described as 'clumsy'.

He can read fine, but slowly.  He can write fine, but very slowly, and
it is definitely a 'drunken spider' effect.  His maths skills, and
lateral thinking skills are fine, although putting 'sums' on paper is a
problem.  When allowed to say, prove Pythagoras's (sp?) from first
principles *verbally*, no problemo.

So his teachers despair of his organisational skills, homework etc.
However he is drifting to the top sets in all subjects that don't rely
on just the written word.  Strangely, foreign languages are also a 'hit'
with him, and I suspect it because there is emphasis on the *spoken*
word. 

It's known in the States as 'Clumsy child syndrome'.

I could give tons more on this, but we were looking at dyslexia...

BTW, I would like to observe that a very large proportion of the folk
who work as engineers in the broadcast TV industry (my bag) are by their
own admission dyslexic, and got into the business because you only had
to understand, and *do*, not prove yourself on paper.  Me, I'm not
dyslexic AFAIK, but I got into it because I got so bored with writing -
I would have an answer to a question ready in my head in 10 secs, and it
took 10 mins to write down, by which time I was bored and wanting to get
onto something else.

Just my 2p.
-- 
Jim Crowther
Mailto:jim@crowfam.demon.co.uk
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