Is Dyspraxia a Learning Disability? What You Need to Know.

Whether you’re an adult that’s discovering the cause behind those childhood difficulties, or a parent being introduced to your child’s world of “differences,” the chances are that you have a lot of questions. Some disabilities are relatively clear-cut: if someone is blind or low vision, then they have a relatively narrow range of challenges based on that diagnosis. However, many other disabilities are harder to define. For many people who are facing a dyspraxia diagnosis, it’s easy to ask, “is dyspraxia a learning disability?” Let’s take a look at this developmental challenge and how it is classified.

What is dyspraxia, anyway?

Answering the question “is dyspraxia a learning disability” requires that we first define this condition. While most people call it dyspraxia, according to the UK’s National Health Service (NHS), the proper term is “Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD)”. This is the term used in most of the literature, and in many different countries. In a nutshell, dyspraxia refers to having difficulties with physical coordination.

Common dyspraxia symptoms

As a developmental challenge, dyspraxia begins in childhood. For many children with this condition, it is difficult to start crawling and walking. This shows us that Another way that dyspraxia can show up is with more complex tasks like tying shoes and fastening buttons. Later on, a child might struggle with kicking a soccer ball, or exhibit poor balance. These and similar symptoms are very frustrating for a child to deal with, especially if he or she sees other children of the same age excelling in these areas.

Another way that people with dyspraxia often struggle is with what are called fine motor skills. Technically, fine motor skills are the ones which move smaller muscles, such as fingers and toes. From the standpoint of a child with dyspraxia, this might mean having trouble with writing: Their handwriting may be difficult to master. And when they do learn how to form letters, they might be messy or large. Over time, this gets frustrating because it can take longer to write something down. Similarly, taking notes in class is harder and might cause a student to miss some things.

As a child moves into adulthood, they may have problems learning to drive. Fun activities like playing sports or even jogging can become more difficult, which often leads to the person avoiding them. To that end, they might not enjoy many of the social outlets or milestones of independence that their peers do. Unfortunately, many of these problems persist into adulthood, though people often learn to adapt.

Additional features of dyspraxia

Besides the common dyspraxia symptoms, there are other reasons that people ask is dyspraxia a learning disability. For instance, a lot of people with dyspraxia have trouble concentrating or learning new skills. In addition, they can have issues with sequencing: First do this, then do that, and so on. Related to the sequencing issues, a lot of people with dyspraxia have problems with remembering and following directions. Many people with dyspraxia often have difficulties with speech, such as stuttering, or differences in the way they think. Finally, people of all ages with dyspraxia are often clumsy and have strange movements.

What causes dyspraxia?

In order to know is dyspraxia a learning disability, we need to know what causes it. I’ll go into this more later, but the cause of the symptoms discussed above is important to the distinction between learning disabilities and other challenges.

According to the British Dyspraxia Foundation, experts technically don’t know what causes dyspraxia. However, most experts believe that it is caused by a difference in the way that motor neurons work within the brain. Specifically, their proper functioning never completely matures, meaning that there’s imperfect development on some level. At the same time, the belief is that the neurological differences aren’t caused by other neurological disorders, such as cerebral palsy or epilepsy.

Let’s look at another datapoint. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual 5 (DSM-5), which sets the standards for psychiatric diagnoses in the United States, specifies that dyspraxia can’t be diagnosed if another condition explains the symptoms. In particular, they mention cerebral palsy and sensory deficits. What this means in practice is that, in order to diagnose dyspraxia, medical professionals need to look for other explanations.

Finally, I’d like to exclude one cause that might be associated with dyspraxia: low intelligence. It is well known that dyspraxia has nothing to do with overall intelligence. It’s easy to see how people can think this, considering that difficulties with tasks like note taking can affect academic performance. Besides, many people with lower intelligence struggle with, for example, tying their shoes.

Is dyspraxia a learning disability?

The truth is that this depends somewhat on your definition of learning disability. What everyone can agree upon is that dyspraxia can and does affect how people learn, and that it places them at a disadvantage from an educational standpoint. We can also agree that students with dyspraxia frequently need specialized educational services to help them both learn and adapt.

However, this is where the two camps on is dyspraxia a learning disability diverge. In the United States, the definition of learning disability appears to include dyspraxia. On the other hand, the United Kingdom defines the term “learning disability” fairly narrowly to exclude it. With that said, using a purely practical viewpoint it’s easy to conclude that dyspraxia is a learning disability. Let’s take a look at how these definitions play out.

United States Department of Education definition

In the United States, the answer to is dyspraxia a learning disability is governed by federal law. In the special education law, the term “learning disability” is defined this way:

(i) General. Specific learning disability means a disorder in one or more of the basic psychological processes involved in understanding or in using language, spoken or written, that may manifest itself in the imperfect ability to listen, think, speak, read, write, spell, or to do mathematical calculations, including conditions such as perceptual disabilities, brain injury, minimal brain dysfunction, dyslexia, and developmental aphasia.

(ii) Disorders not included. Specific learning disability does not include learning problems that are primarily the result of visual, hearing, or motor disabilities, of intellectual disability, of emotional disturbance, or of environmental, cultural, or economic disadvantage.

There are a few things to notice here. First, in paragraph (i) the typically included conditions defined as “learning disability” includes “minimal brain dysfunction.” This is an old-fashioned term for dyspraxia, but nobody uses it anymore. On the other hand, a cause of “intellectual disability,” or low intelligence, is excluded. So are “motor disabilities,” which affect someone’s ability to move.

So what should we make of this? Typically, we define the term motor disability as something that might, for example, require a wheelchair. In other words, it is a strictly physical disability. Dyspraxia, on the other hand, is psychological even though experts believe that the problem originates in the way someone’s brain develops.

From the standpoint of the United States definition, the answer to is dyspraxia a disability is a resounding “yes.”

The United Kingdom definition of “learning disability.”

In the United Kingdom, the term “learning disability” has a rather different meaning. While both definitions involve someone having difficulty learning things, the nature and cause of the impairment are rather different. According to the National Institute of Clinical Excellence (NICE), a learning disability implies that someone has a lower level of intellectual ability, defined as an IQ of 70 or below. This is the same as “mental retardation” or “intellectual disability” in the United States.

So, is dyspraxia a learning disability by the UK definition? No. Instead, it is a “learning difficulty.” Same basic category of disabilities, but the terminology is different.

Finally, there’s the practical definition.

From here on out, I’m going to define “learning disability” the American way: as synonymous with the UK term “learning difficulty.” When looked at from a purely practical standpoint, the clear answer to “is dyspraxia a learning disability” is yes. In addition, many learning disability organizations advocate for people with dyspraxia, including the Learning Disabilities Association in the US.

Why is dyspraxia a learning disability from a practical standpoint? Simply put, because it makes the task of learning harder. This can happen in several different ways. For instance, learning to write is more difficult for many children with dyspraxia, since they have more trouble forming the letters. Then, having difficulty with writing makes it harder to keep up in class in the higher grades, since taking notes is more difficult.

Comparing dyspraxia with certain other disabilities.

Now that we have answered is dyspraxia a learning disability in the affirmative, I’d like to briefly compare it to two other disabilities: dyslexia and ADHD.

When people ask about the difference between dyslexia and dyspraxia, I reply that it can be easy to confuse them. This is especially true when reading and writing are involved. Simply put, dyslexia makes it more difficult to learn how to read: the letters don’t necessarily fit together properly. On the other hand, dyspraxia makes it more difficult to move properly, which can affect how letters are formed. And at the same time, people with dyspraxia sometimes struggle with speech, but dyslexia doesn’t cause this. At the end of the day, dyslexia affects how you understand written words. Dyspraxia, as it relates to literacy, affects the ability to write through letter formation, and reading in terms of articulation.

Finally, let’s compare dyspraxia to ADHD. These are more difficult to tell apart for an educational practitioner, because both can cause excessive movement and lower attention spans. One key difference, however, is in how they affect movement. People with ADHD often need to move all the time, but it doesn’t necessarily affect how well they move (or their coordination). In addition, people with dyspraxia don’t always struggle with short attention spans, while this is a hallmark of ADHD. With that being said, telling the two conditions apart often requires careful evaluation. It is also possible to have both.

Because dyspraxia primarily affects movement, many people don’t think of it as a learning disability. However, under most definitions the answer to is dyspraxia a learning disability is a resounding “yes.” You might consider it the often-ignored learning disability, especially since it is easy to confuse with dyslexia and ADHD. Nonetheless, many students with dyspraxia need special education supports to reach their full potential in school.

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