Dealing with Dyspraxia

'Throughout my school years, I struggled with tasks that other kids found easy. Things like tying my shoelaces, catching a ball. Handwriting was incredibly difficult…'

Cameron Farish, 22, was finally diagnosed with Dyspraxia, also known as Developmental Co-ordination Disorder. It’s a condition that can make a child appear clumsy or slow to learn.

'I think a lot of teachers thought I was being lazy and difficult, especially with the hand-writing,' says Cameron, from Workington in Cumbria. 'I was practising all the time but it never got better. I think teachers decided I didn’t want it to get better.'

Cameron told his story on ITV News Border on Thursday, 4 October.

Dyspraxia is not a particularly rare condition, and it’s reckoned there’s a good chance that at least one child in every class has it.

Cameron says: 'Teachers need to understand this so they can help kids with Dyspraxia.'

Fixers has helped Cameron create an informational poster for staff rooms and other school or college locations.

He’s had support from Gill Dixon of the Dyspraxia Foundation, who says the effects of the condition can be can be serious and life-lasting: 'These are children who really struggle with everything that everyone else learns automatically. So their self-esteem is usually rather battered. At the extreme end we meet children with behavioural issues or those that choose to withdraw, then later in life we do see a number of people with mental health conditions, particularly anxiety based.'

Says Cameron: 'Even if my poster just helped one student that would make me happy -  to know that they’re finally going to get some closure around maybe why they aren’t as good as other people in classes, why they aren’t writing as neatly as other people. It would give me a great sense of satisfaction, just to know I have helped one person.'

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