This is the second instalment in a five-part series written to help parents and other caregivers identify potential signs of dyspraxia (also known as Developmental Coordination Disorder, or DCD) from toddlerhood to early adulthood. If you missed the start of the series, you can catch up on Part One: Identifying dyspraxia in the early years (ages 2 to 4).
Starting formal school is a huge milestone, but for a dyspraxic four- or five-year-old, it represents a dramatic increase in environmental and physical demand – both in the classroom and during daily home routines. Much of that demand involves visual-spatial processing and motor sequencing, areas that can be more demanding for children with DCD than their neurotypical peers.
(A quick note on terminology: I’m writing from the UK, where ages 4 to 7 span Infant School, and Key Stage 1. If you’re in the United States or Canada, this maps directly to Pre-K, Kindergarten, and First/Second Grade – the transition into structured school life.)
At home, parents find themselves managing high-pressure morning routines: dressing into uniforms, packing bags, eating breakfast on a tight timeline, and getting out of the door. This is often the stage where the gap between a child’s intellectual ability and their physical motor control becomes far more apparent.
If you’re wondering whether your infant-school child might be showing signs of dyspraxia, it can be helpful to observe how they navigate physical demands across a few core areas of daily life.
Fine motor skills
As formal writing, drawing, and crafting demands increase at school, fine-motor fatigue and coordination challenges often show up at home.
Awkward grip & pressure: Look out for whether your child holds pencils or crayons with an awkward grip, or whether they press down far too hard (or so softly the line is barely visible). As I described in a post on dyspraxic handwriting, this is a common indicator of DCD – and illustrates the ‘spectrum of severity’, spanning slowness and cumulative discomfort at one end to jarring pain from the outset at the other.
Manipulating tools: It is common for dyspraxics – including my daughter and me – to find scissors awkward, so look out for jagged cutting lines. By the time children are at infant school, they are typically using a range of age-appropriate tools. Look out for challenges with everything from glue sticks and bottle tops to whisking cake batter when baking on the weekend.
Cutlery & self-care: Look for ongoing difficulty using a knife and fork together, or messy eating habits that persist long past the toddler phase despite constant, gentle guidance.
Gross motor skills
Physical play with peers and everyday movement around the home and garden can highlight gross-motor coordination differences. Sports too.
Playground & garden play: Is there noticeable hesitation or anxiety when invited to join fast-paced playground games, tag, or family garden play? Does your child participate but appear unusually uncoordinated? Particular apparatus at the playground may offer a clue. My daughter and I both struggled with monkey bars, while our peers swung with simian ease.
Ball skills & balance: Look out for persistent difficulties with catching, throwing overarm, or kicking a ball, as well as struggling to hop, jump, or balance on one foot. Both my daughter and I struggled with overarm throwing, a skill I still haven’t mastered at the grand old age of 46.
Early relationships with sport: As I discussed when exploring why being dyspraxic doesn't mean you're bound to be bad at sport, early physical experiences in family play and PE lessons heavily shape a child's confidence and relationship with exercise for years to come. Look out for difficulties with learning to ride a bike and to swim. And remember that dyspraxia doesn’t guarantee the child will be unable to participate; instead, you may notice that your little one just takes longer than their peers to master the required skills.
Core strength & posture: Observe how your child sits. Struggling to sit upright on a classroom carpet or at a dinner table without slumping or needing constant physical support, can reflect challenges with underlying core strength and balance.
Sequencing
Executing physical or cognitive tasks in a clear, step-by-step order requires a high degree of motor planning and sequencing – something that dyspraxic brains have to compute consciously rather than automatically.
The morning rush: Getting dressed independently requires a rapid sequence of physical steps. Comparing my experience of dyspraxia with Rosemary Richings’, via her first book, shines a light on the spectrum of severity when it comes to common dyspraxic symptoms. Some six-year-old children with dyspraxia may need a parent to physically intervene with their dressing; at the opposite end of the spectrum, other dyspraxic children may be capable of dressing independently but take significantly longer than expected. Look out for difficulty sequencing steps like buttons, zips, shoelaces, taking jumpers off over their head, or putting socks and shoes on in the correct order.
Lego & construction sets: Lego play can provide so many clues. While the fine motor skills needed to manipulate small bricks are an obvious sign, there is also the mental sequencing required when following a step-by-step build manual. One big caveat: while dyspraxics may be a little slower at constructing Lego than their neurotypical peers, some of us love it – my daughter and me included!
Domestic routines: Young dyspraxics can struggle to follow multi-step household instructions, such as "put your coat on, grab your bookbag, and stand by the front door", often losing the sequence halfway through. Look out for this – and try to maintain patience.
General visual-spatial awareness
Visual-spatial processing is about how the brain maps objects, distances, and orientation in space – both on paper and in three-dimensional environments.
Lego instruction translation: Translating a two-dimensional instruction booklet into a three-dimensional physical build requires real visual-spatial effort. Many other toys and games will present similar challenges.
Table geometry & dining: One of the subtle signs I noticed with my daughter was her placing her plate further away from her than was practical or comfortable, and then having to awkwardly reach further than necessary for her food. Look out too for frequently knocking over cups and beakers, or misjudging where items sit on a crowded dinner table.
Spatial orientation & clothing: Putting shoes on the wrong feet, putting t-shirts or jumpers on back-to-front, or misjudging personal space when sitting next to peers.
Secondary symptoms: self-awareness, embarrassment, and fatigue
As children move through infant school, they begin to compare themselves to their peers. This can be where ‘secondary symptoms’ start to emerge – the emotional and psychological side effects of living with an unidentified physical challenge.
A growing sense of difference: As siblings or classmates dress quickly or master playground games, a dyspraxic child may notice their own pacing gaps. Look out for a creeping sense of embarrassment or frustration when a task takes them longer than their peers.
After-school restraint collapse: One of the most exhausting aspects of dyspraxia at this age is the sheer mental effort required for physical tasks that others do on autopilot. If your child comes home from school and immediately collapses into an emotional meltdown, tears, or complete apathy, it may not just be general tiredness. It could be the profound physical and mental fatigue of working twice as hard all day to navigate a physical world that requires constant, conscious motor effort. (Note too that other forms of neurodivergence can result in a similar after-school collapse – with the social demands of school tiring many autistic children, for example.)
Accumulation of observations
As described in the series-opening post about pre-school years, seeing one or two of the traits described above doesn't automatically mean your child has DCD. But if you notice a consistent pattern where everyday physical coordination, self-care, sequencing, and spatial tasks seem significantly more taxing for your child than their peers, it’s worth keeping a brief log and speaking to their school SENCO, class teacher, or GP. And please show them all the support they can muster. Trust me, dyspraxia can be very emotionally challenging to live with – at any age.
Coming up next:
As children move out of infant school and into junior school, family life shifts toward managing homework, weekend activities, and growing independence. Look out next week for Part Three: Identifying dyspraxia in the junior school years (ages 7 to 11).
(If you are an educator or want to understand what teachers look for in the classroom, check out my companion guide on how to identify symptoms of dyspraxia in primary school.)
