Names

Dyspraxia has had many different names over the years and there is still a little lack of certainty over exactly what to call it now although as far as i'm aware there is currently two widely recognised and accepted names which are Dyspraxia and Developmental Co-ordination Disorder (DCD) which is definitely a step in the right direction from some of the negative term used in the past and this blog is going to go through many of these terms.
starting with the most common of the older and more negative terms to be used for dyspraxia which is clumsy child syndrome which is clearly quite negative and inaccurate as dyspraxia is not something that only affects children and although it is easy to see why this term may have been used in the past as clumsiness is often a very common trait of people who have dyspraxia however it is not the only thing involved and the term clumsy child syndrome may promote the idea that it is. this may also have lead to a belief that the people were not intelligent because they were unable to carry out a "simple" task. however the term clumsy child syndrome is very rarely used now and in my experience if it is its as a previously referred to or known as which may help when trying to explain as the current most used terms are fairly recent developments.
two more of the much older terms that have been used, both of which are very negative, are minimal brain damage and motor morons which i only found out was a term that was used whilst i was doing my dissertation at university and it is clear to see why these terms are negative and have not been commonly used terms with one suggesting brain damage which i believe has been proven not to be the case otherwise we would have a cause and the other term motor morons which suggests idiotic or stupid which we also know not to be the case as many people who have dyspraxia are shown to actually be quite intelligent.
moving on to a more professional or medical term which is perceptuo-motor dysfunction which seems to be a perfectly acceptable term to be used as it means neurological motor difficulties/problem and i can see why it is not used that much if at all especially with there now being DCD and Dyspraxia as it could seem quite complex or too medical to some
personally (as you may be able to tell) i prefer the term Dyspraxia over developmental co-ordination disorder partly because i feel that DCD could potentially lead some people into believing co-ordination is the only aspect or difficulty which we know it isnt. the main reason i prefer the term dyspraxia is because as 1 word it doesnt seem to create any possible preconceptions (unless you translate it from very old greek to modern english dys=poor and praxia/praxis=practice/movement) as well as this it also has a clear and obvious link to dyslexia and dyscalculia and with them often occurring together it could be useful for the awareness and understanding of all of the 'conditions'.
hopefully this blog makes some people more aware of what others mean when they use different terms.