Dyspraxia Awareness Week 2025
Understanding Dyspraxia: Building Confidence Through Occupational Therapy
This Dyspraxia Awareness Week (6–12 October 2025), we at Words First are shining a light on Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD), commonly known as dyspraxia.
Dyspraxia affects the way the brain plans, organises and carries out movement. It can influence fine and gross motor skills, spatial awareness, sequencing and coordination. For children, this can mean struggling to keep up with handwriting, finding PE lessons challenging, or avoiding activities that involve balance or catching a ball. In everyday life, it might look like taking longer to get dressed, spilling drinks often, or finding multi-step tasks confusing.
Dyspraxia can also affect how children organise their thoughts and actions, influencing confidence, self-esteem, and participation in school and social settings. It is estimated that up to 5% of children are affected by dyspraxia, yet many remain undiagnosed or misunderstood.
Our specialist Occupational Therapist (OT), Gel, who leads on the Developmental Coordination Disorder Pathway within the Words First OT team, shares her insights below.
Seeing the Whole Child
Dyspraxia can present in many ways. One child might avoid playing football with friends, another child might feel frustrated with the mark they received in their writing book despite doing their best, or a young person might refuse to take part in PE because changing into and out of their kit feels difficult. These observed behaviours may be mislabelled as laziness, clumsiness, shyness, or simply refusing, but they reflect the real challenges children with dyspraxia face.
As OTs, we look beyond the surface and seek to understand the function of the activity of daily living and how the child engages in it. We work collaboratively with the child and their family to identify and prioritise the skills and functional goals they want to focus on in therapy. Interventions can take two main forms: adapting tasks and providing focused teaching on a specific skill or supporting the development of underlying sensory processing and motor skills. Often, therapy involves a combination of both approaches, co-produced with the child and family to ensure it is meaningful and part of their daily life.
At Words First, we provide specialist professional input from the lens of empowerment and understanding.
How Occupational Therapy Helps
Occupational Therapy (OT) is about supporting children do the everyday activities that matter most to them, whether that’s writing their name, playing with friends or managing school routines with greater independence.
Our OTs work across schools, homes and community settings to:
- Assess motor and sensory processing affecting their ability to complete tasks effectively.
- Break activities into achievable steps, helping children experience success and build mastery
- Develop motor planning and sequencing, supporting smoother, more coordinated movements
- Use sensory integration approaches to strengthen body awareness, balance and coordination
- Teach strategies for organisation and attention, helping children manage multi-step instructions
- Work collaboratively with teachers and parents, ensuring consistent support across environments
“Small changes can make a huge difference,” Gel adds. “A child might use a visual sequence to get dressed in the morning for school or have simple adjustments to their cutlery at mealtimes to support independence. The goal isn’t perfection – it’s participation. Every child deserves to feel capable in their world.”
Beyond Motor Skills: Building Confidence in Children with Dyspraxia
For many children, dyspraxia affects more than just movement – it can also impact confidence and self-esteem. Repeated difficulties may lead to frustration, withdrawal, or avoidance of activities they find challenging. That’s why OTs at Words First also support social and emotional wellbeing alongside skill development.
When you teach children strategies to support their learning, you’re not just teaching a specific skill – you’re also helping them develop ways to approach and solve future challenges. This builds their confidence, encourages independent thinking, and equips them to tackle new tasks more effectively.
Partnering with Schools and Families
We know that children thrive when the adults around them share knowledge and strategies in a consistent, streamlined way. Our OTs work closely with teachers, SENCOs, and parents to adapt learning environments and daily routines. From using sloped writing boards or alternative cutlery to adjusting PE activities, the goal is always the same: to enable participation and make learning enjoyable.
Dyspraxia doesn’t disappear with age, but with the right understanding and support, children learn to navigate challenges and build on their strengths. They become problem-solvers, innovators, and creative thinkers who approach tasks with confidence and bring unique perspectives to the world.
A Message from Words First
At Words First, we are proud to be part of each child’s journey. Our Occupational Therapists, including Gel and our wider sensory integration-trained team, are passionate about supporting children with dyspraxia build skills, confidence and joy in the everyday tasks that shape their independence.
This Dyspraxia Awareness Week, we celebrate the resilience, creativity and determination of every child who faces challenges with courage, and the families, teachers and therapists who stand beside them.
About Gel Castillo
Gel is a highly specialist Occupational Therapist with over a decade of experience supporting children and young people with complex motor, sensory and neurodevelopmental needs. She holds a bachelor’s degree in Occupational Therapy from the University of Santo Tomas in the Philippines and is completing a master’s degree at the same university, alongside advanced Sensory Integration training at Ulster University.
In her first role at Words First, Gel worked with the Special Educational Needs and Disability Service in Barking and Dagenham, delivering assessments and interventions for children with Education, Health and Care Plans (EHCPs). At Words First, she specialises in autism, sensory processing and developmental coordination, translating evidence-based approaches into practical strategies that empower students, teachers and families.
