A disability that nobody can see [IrishTimes]
- Published: 08 November 2011
Aside from dealing with ‘clumsiness’ and pain, seven-year-old Luc struggles with the simplest of tasks – running, writing, dressing, eating. He suffers from the little-known condition dyspraxia, writes SHEILA WAYMAN
LUC CARPENTER often cries all the way home from school, complaining that he is hungry or that he has had a bad day or that somebody has been mean to him.
As a seven-year-old boy with the “hidden disorder” of dyspraxia, the school day is a huge ordeal physically, academically and socially. He is exhausted afterwards.
The moment his mother, Michelle, gets him back to their home, in Clane, Co Kildare, she needs to give him food, as he will probably have eaten little if anything since breakfast. Then he has a break before they face the challenge of homework.
His writing is “absolutely appalling”, she says. “I have to say, ‘I will do this line if you do that line.’ Spelling – it is like banging your head against a brick wall. At the moment he seems to be good at maths, which I am highlighting.”
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