Motor Apraxia & Hypotonia

I posted before about two of my kids having speech apraxia. What I didn't go into was that my son also has another type of apraxia (motor apraxia) as well as hypotonia, affecting his fine and gross motor skills. For those who don't know what that is, here is a definition:

Apraxia: Total or partial loss of the ability to perform coordinated movements or manipulate objects in the absence of motor or sensory impairment. (source: Answers.com) This is a neurological disorder.

Hypotonia: abnormally low muscle tone.

It started with delays in milestones - rolling over, sitting up, crawling, walking. All were delayed considerably. Then the fine motor skills - holding scissors, crayons, tying shoes, buttons and zippers. Things most kids learn to do easily enough were a great source of frustration for my son. Coordinating movements and manipulating objects was so difficult for him.

He spent several years in occupational therapy to help him learn how to do these things and building up strength, especially in his upper body where he had slack muscle tone. He has come a long way. He holds his pencil differently than most, but that's ok. He has great handwriting! He still has a hard time tying his shoes and in 3rd grade, that's an embarrassment for him. Up until last year, he'd go through his school day with his pants unsnapped, hidden under a long shirt, because he couldn't manipulate the snap and he was too embarrassed to ask for help. Snaps can still give him a hard time but he's a lot better. Buttons on jeans are still a problem so I try to find him pants that don't have a button to close them or elastic waists (thank the gods for athletic pants all the kids love to wear!). He is now in a size of shoe where they don't have velcro anymore so he's stuck with the laces. I lost count how many times he came home with his shoes untied this school year, not being able to tie them correctly to hold for very long. His fingers don't have the dexterity to tie them correctly. It's frustrating for him to see his little sister tie her shoes easily while he is left behind still trying to tie his shoes.

I watched him two weeks ago throw a bowling ball down the alley quite strongly and saw just how far he'd come from the baby who couldn't raise his head or roll over. My handsome boy has worked so hard! He was given the "disabled" label several years ago but the regular person on the street certainly can't tell anymore, if they look beyond the untied shoes and disorganized pants (which is a lot of boys actually, lol). He can run, jump, and climb with the rest of them. He's not as "rough and tumble" as a lot of his friends, and he may hesitate to think about how to do something most kids take for granted before doing it, but that's ok. He is doing great!

So what caused this? We don't know. The doctors don't know. We can make guesses but we will never know for sure. I tend to think it was the huge stress (from a major twit who thought she was big and bad to come after a pregnant woman) during my fourth month of pregnancy that started my labor early (got it stopped thankfully) and then getting punched in my lower back in my ninth month of pregnancy. It was definitely a stressful pregnancy (and the reason we moved to another state!). My son's doctor said those things could have caused it, but nobody can say for sure.

It's very important to get early intervention for children. We pushed our pediatrician to get the diagnosis when we did (we should have had it even earlier!). If you have a doctor who says to wait and see and your gut tells you different, go with your gut. You are the parent. You know your child. If we'd waited longer to get the tests done and a diagnosis, my son would've been that much further behind now. Who knows if we'd missed the window of opportunity to get those neurons firing for him to make those connections!

He also has sensory integration dysfunction that I'll talk about another time.