Can Your Child’s Clumsiness be a Sign That Your Child Needs Counseling?

All children pass through an awkward stage when learning and mastering certain motor skills. It is hard to say which is usual and which is not; there’s an enormously broad range of what’s normal when it comes to agility and coordination. There are children who can master various coordination skills early – hand-eye/foot-eye coordination, balance and depth perception, and there are those, who will trip or fall over a lot of times, will have difficulty learning to write, and will not catch a ball thrown to them.

Why is your child clumsy? Is it just the usual type common among growing and developing children, or is it something you must worry about? There are many possible causes of clumsiness. Initially, the most important thing to do is to seek professional help so that your child can be properly assessed.

What to Look Out For

Like other children, your son/daughter will pass through the three stages motor development and will show awkwardness and blips in the process until he/she masters the skill. While there are certain milestone developments to note such walking before turning 1 year, it can be delayed a bit and it is still normal.

You may start getting worried when he/she shows delays in many motor skills. When you observe that your child is having difficulty achieving milestones in several areas, get him/her evaluated.

Evaluation is Critical

While clumsiness is a childhood “quirk” in development that is soon outgrown in time, don’t just dismiss motor difficulties as normal. Evaluation is critical to rule out serious conditions and to be able to seek the right treatment or help.

Body coordination is an enormously complicated process involving input from both sensory and motor systems. Delays during the early years of development may interfere with your child’s school performance and his/her ability to become socially integrated. Without help, your child may lag in school and may have difficulty relating with others. This will cause him/her to have poor self-esteem that can make him/her clumsier; other psychosocial problems can become magnified growing up.

Early Diagnosis and Treatment

If milestone developments are mostly delayed and your child is hardly mastering the critical motor skills, you may have to steer him/her away from play to give attention to practicing the motor skills. With the delay and as he/she grows older, self-consciousness or insecurities may set in as he/she fails to do what other children of same age are doing. Failure to master motor skill appropriate to his/her age may cause your child to shy away from the other children leading to behavioral problems and emotional stresses.

If your son/daughter is clumsy and has become withdrawn due to it and his/her other inabilities, it is a sign that he/she needs counseling before the other areas of development suffer too. “Wait and see” frequently doesn’t work. Take a proactive stance. Contact Carolina Counseling Services – Southern Pines, NC for an appointment. Let us step in to assist you in empowering your son/daughter though counseling and/or referral to other therapy. Don’t cause any further delay because life will not wait for your child.

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