The Boy With Dyspraxia

The Boy with Dyspraxia

by Ho Bing Lin

This is Ian, an ordinary, but clumsy boy… with speech issues.

His school life is quite miserable. He is teased and bullied for being “odd”. This is made worse by the fact that Ian has nothing noteworthy to distract them from it.

His speech issue discourages Ian from speaking in class unless it is really necessary, and this affects his studies too.

Ian’s teacher notices his distress and tries to help him. But, because he is prone to incidents, Ian is unwilling to talk to or make friends with anybody, including the nicer kids around.

One fine morning, during recess time, a pretty lady spots Ian sitting alone near one of the school gates.

She tells him that she can lead him on a journey that will allow him to go about life without the teasing and the bullying and all the other problems. Brightened by this prospect, Ian is eager to get started.

In order to gain acceptance, Ian has to overcome his clumsiness and weakness of his legs. He has to improve his ability to co-ordinate eye-hand actions by learning to play the piano. He also has to sing well so as to be able to speak with confidence.

Learning to carry out all those tasks is tough. However, the lady is patient enough to repeat the steps over and over again until he can perform the tasks correctly and confidently from memory.

Many years pass by and Ian gets frustrated; “Why am I even doing this?“ he asks. The lady finally tells him about his condition: dyspraxia.

Stunned by the revelation, Ian runs off, confused.

Trying to convince himself that he heard wrong, Ian dives into research on the subject. However, what he finds brings little consolation.

He is now in Secondary two, and the journey is still challenging, but at this point, Ian is not alone anymore.

The world around has changed with him and friends who were not close to him previously are now willing to help him.

His hard work has raised awareness and does pay off after all.

The lady smiles from a distance – her work is finally done – and Ian smiles as well.

It’s your turn now, dear reader, to know that dyspraxia is out there, and help others to overcome it too.

Ian is an ordinary boy with Dyspraxia, a Developmental Co-ordination Disorder. But since his schoolmates do not really know of this disorder, he is seen as clumsy and thus, gets bullied and teased about it, making his school life quite miserable.

One day, a lady walks by the school and informs Ian that she can take him on a journey that will help him with his disorder. However, she warns that this will come at a cost.

Will Ian muster up the courage to go through this journey, or will the fear of messing up again keep him from trying?