I have been reading along to this very interesting discussion here, and I
want to add that every child and adult no matter if they have a disability
or not, they're sometimes clumsy because of accidental happenings like
dropping heavy textbooks at school.  The dropping of textbooks shouldn't
make you lose sleep or get you to rush to the doctors for the "clumsy
person" label.  But speaking of diagnosing children with CP or whatever, I
have began to talk with more and more parents of older children (ages 8-16),
who haven't ever received the diagnosis of Cerebral Palsy or whatever
disability, which is a scary thought for me since I was already diagnosed
with Cerebral Palsy easily by the age of 2, and my doctors, my parents, my
therapists and some family friends were already laying out the ground work
for my rehabilitation.  Thinking about it, my parents actually leaded the
team and they had developed a fairly good plan of action by my 3rd birthday
mainly because I feel that both my parents grew either around or on farms in
North Dakota, where the model is "when you have problems with the tractor,
you have to fix it to get it going somehow because you can't just forget
about it and it will go away".   Having had this teaching has really helped
me live a life with Cerebral Palsy because whatever comes up, it's my job to
find someway of working with or around it.

Thanks,
Anthony
  ----- Original Message -----
  From: Salkin Kathleen
  To: [log in to unmask]
  Sent: Saturday, February 02, 2002 8:46 AM
  Subject: Re: up around the bend-------


  You know, when I first read that term yesterday, I thought, "You've got to
  be kidding."  Then I read some of the articles that came up after doing a
  search on Google.  I'm still in a state of disbelief.

  I suppose there're medical reasons for this, but I'm left with wondering
  what if a kid is simply clumsy?  Does he get slapped with this unnecessary
  and potentially-damaging label?  I can just see it now - "Did he fail at
  football tryouts?  Let's get him to the doctor, maybe he has "Clumsy Child
  Syndrome!" I don't mean to disparage the ones who are actually clumsy due
to
  a medical condition, but when does something that's a natural part of
  growing up become a disability?  And of course there are those children
who
  actually do have something like CP who could've been helped far sooner if
  not diverted with false diagnoses  like these.

  Kat


  ----- Original Message -----
  From: "Betty B" <[log in to unmask]>
  To: <[log in to unmask]>
  Sent: Saturday, February 02, 2002 9:05 AM
  Subject: Re: up around the bend-------


  > In a message dated 2/1/2002 4:39:48 PM Eastern Standard Time,
  > [log in to unmask] writes:
  >
  >
  > > There is a syndrome called
  > > clumsy child syndrome aka:
  > > Dyspraxia/Apraxia/Developmental Coordination Disorder.
  > >
  > Gee, why don't I like that term -- Clumsy Child Syndrome?  There also
used
  to
  > be a term used to describe "funny looking" children.  Does that sound
  > familiar to anyone?  I can't remember where I read this, but I think it
  was a
  > term that was not publically used.