The Clumsy Child

[Brooksie]

I have a child who has NO coordination at all. She will be 3 next month. She falls all the time, just falls, or trips over herself. She likes to twirl and I swear it gives me a mini heart attack every time because you see her feet stumbling over each other. We went outside today and she bit the dust 4 times in the first 10 minutes, just by running across the yard. Her first day in care she tripped over nothing and went flying into the molding of the door way and needed to go to urgent care. She struggles with a lot of our gross motor activities and cannot seem to balance to save her life, and she even has trouble with some of our fine motor stuff. Like we just did a cutting practice activity yesterday and she could NOT hold the scissors up straight. She's otherwise on point developmentally. Any suggestions?!?

[jessrlee]

Make sure her shoes fit well and be sure to give her a lot of time to practice .

[Familycare71]

Google OT for spacial awareness... I would assume you would find some tech on there. Kids that struggle with that tend to love to spin, etc... They seem that feeling out most times.
Has she always been like this or is it recent? Some kids get like that too during growth spurts.
Hope that helps- if you don't find any helpful info or if anyone doesn't have some off the top of their head I will look more into it for ideas- I just can't right now

[Heidi]

My son was intellectually gifted, but motor development was way behind.

He had speech, OT, and PT throughout grade school. He also has rather poor spatial awareness, although it's much better now (he's 21).

In his late teens he decided to go into the military upon graduation and started working out a lot. As his strength increased, there was a huge jump in his coordination. Even became a sniper.

I would definitely ask the parents to have her evaluated. She should be able to get some OT and PT through the school system.

[TwinKristi]

I have one who's 2 and very clumsy but he has some SNs that are being addressed with speech, physical and occupational therapy. He doesn't have great core strength so he often leans forward to compensate and while he doesn't twirl much, I can only imagine! He gets injued quite often (more at home than here thankfully) but silly things like walking into the wall, table, etc. His spacial awareness is definitely lacking. Is she a squishy feeling child? That's one thing one of the workers noticed. He is a big boy, but very squishy!

[Brooksie]

Make sure her shoes fit well and be sure to give her a lot of time to practice .

Shoe's definitely fit. Just got 3 new pair.

Google OT for spacial awareness... I would assume you would find some tech on there. Kids that struggle with that tend to love to spin, etc... They seem that feeling out most times.
Has she always been like this or is it recent? Some kids get like that too during growth spurts.
Hope that helps- if you don't find any helpful info or if anyone doesn't have some off the top of their head I will look more into it for ideas- I just can't right now

Thanks! I was definitely able to find some info that I can put to use. This does sound like what she's got going on.

I have one who's 2 and very clumsy but he has some SNs that are being addressed with speech, physical and occupational therapy. He doesn't have great core strength so he often leans forward to compensate and while he doesn't twirl much, I can only imagine! He gets injued quite often (more at home than here thankfully) but silly things like walking into the wall, table, etc. His spacial awareness is definitely lacking. Is she a squishy feeling child? That's one thing one of the workers noticed. He is a big boy, but very squishy!

She's not squishy but that might be because she's a bean. Very tall and skinny. Tiny Tiny girl. Horrible diet too

[jenn]

My daughter is my clumsy one! She has no developmental issues, she just inherited the ungraceful gene from me.:: She falls, trips, and stumbles all the time. At 3, she fell off the step stool and fractured her wrist. A few weeks ago, now age 5, she was "twirling like a ballerina" and fell. She has 5 buckle/hairline fractures in her 3 middle toes. I need to wrap her in bubble wrap!

[Familycare71]

My daughter is my clumsy one! She has no developmental issues, she just inherited the ungraceful gene from me.:: She falls, trips, and stumbles all the time. At 3, she fell off the step stool and fractured her wrist. A few weeks ago, now age 5, she was "twirling like a ballerina" and fell. She has 5 buckle/hairline fractures in her 3 middle toes. I need to wrap her in bubble wrap!

Even if there are no delays the things OT does for spacial awareness will be helpful- just things you can do at home to help her. It is all the same struggle with a different cause
Just a suggestion

[cheerfuldom]

perhaps low muscle tone or other special needs issues. is there any free resources for early intervention in your area that you can direct mom to?

[jenn]

Even if there are no delays the things OT does for spacial awareness will be helpful- just things you can do at home to help her. It is all the same struggle with a different cause
Just a suggestion

Thanks for the suggestion. She has some liver/lung issues. Her condition does not do anything to cause this, she has no motor issues, or any observable issues at all, just internal stuff. We talked with her team about her clumsy tendencies or maybe fragile bones, and they found nothing wrong at all. She's just accident prone and clumsy. Goofball. She totally gets it from me. I broke my toe last winter by walking into a chair. I hurt my shoulder by walking into a door frame. Gracefulness does not run in our family! I totally agree with you that it never hurts to get things checked out.

[spinnymarie]

Is she new? I had a girl like that, a friend's daughter... she just never had a chance to do gross motor and develop the skills. At her old DC they didn't do much outdoors or gross motor and at home she's not allowed to climb, spin, run, etc, inside... and her mom hates outside. She was just ... still developing. Hopefully she will get better with practice!

[Brooksie]

She's been here maybe 3 months? Her mom spoke highly of her previous care, she just wanted something closer to work.

[Bookworm]

If DCG doesn't have any developmental delays, I recommend taking dance or gymnastics. Maybe it will help her coordination problems.

[Lavender]

My daughter was like that at that age with no issues I noticed other than some speech issues. As she started school, however, multiple issues became very evident. I now have a list of challenges she has that explain it all very well. Motor issues, processing disorders, and visual problems. I would document your observations over a week and then speak to the parents about your concerns. Give them a copy of the observations to take with them to get some evaluations done and perhaps have her vision assessed by a behavioral optometrist. I wish that I could have realized my daughter's "clumsiness" was a sign of very real issues so she could have gotten help earlier.

[Sunshine74]

I would definitely suggest to DCM that she get evaluated. It can't hurt. If she does need intervention, she will be getting the help she needs, and if she doesn't, at least you will know.