Dyspraxia and DCD: What the Terms Actually Mean

By Laura Lurns · Reviewed by Philip Weaver · Last reviewed 2026-09-30

What is DCD?

Two public health pages describe DCD. One is in the UK, and one is in Australia (NHS, 2023; healthdirect, 2025). The NHS page calls it a condition affecting physical coordination.

The NHS page says that in children with DCD, drawing, writing and sports are usually behind what is expected for their age. Among its signs, the healthdirect page names holding a pencil, and writing.

The NHS page talks about a diagnosis of DCD (NHS, 2023). Our rule is to describe patterns on these pages. We do not put a name on a child.

Handwriting improves most consistently with handwriting practice; motor work alone has not been shown to improve it.

Where does the word dyspraxia come in?

In the UK and Australia, dyspraxia is an everyday name for DCD (NHS, 2023; healthdirect, 2025). The NHS calls DCD a condition affecting physical coordination. Both the NHS and healthdirect pages list writing among the signs of DCD. An international consensus on DCD advises against the word dyspraxia (Blank and colleagues, 2019).

So in the UK and Australia, you may hear two words for DCD. Which one you hear can depend on where you live. It can also depend on who is talking.

To us, the word matters less than what someone saw your child do. If a report uses either word, ask what the writer saw. Handwriting improves most consistently with handwriting practice; motor work alone has not been shown to improve it.

Why do professionals prefer DCD?

The NHS page gives one reason. It says professionals prefer DCD "because dyspraxia can have several meanings". So if a report says dyspraxia, ask what it means by it.

Experts from many countries wrote joint advice on DCD (Blank and colleagues, 2019). They go further. They say dyspraxia is not recognized as a separate kind of DCD. They do not recommend the word at all.

The healthdirect page lists that same advice as a source. So they are not two separate sources. Even so, healthdirect still uses the word dyspraxia.

What does DCD have to do with handwriting?

An international consensus on DCD says handwriting is usually affected (Blank and colleagues, 2019). It also says handwriting and typing should be assessed on their own. Its reason is that writing uses language.

Who counts depends on where a study draws the line. One study looked at a group of children with DCD (Lopez, Hemimou and Vaivre-Douret, 2017). Most of those children had handwriting trouble. Far fewer met the study's bar for dysgraphia. The study drew that line with a standard handwriting test and a clinician's checks. It was a DCD sample, not a count of all children. It is a short conference report.

One small study looked at how children with DCD formed their letters (Prunty and Barnett, 2020). The study compared them with typical children of the same age and gender. The children with DCD made more mistakes inside letters. Families signed up by answering an ad. So they chose to take part. The authors think these children may need to be taught how to form letters.

A review of DCD and handwriting looked at kinds of help (Biotteau and colleagues, 2019). Drawing on earlier reviews, it reported weak effects for help aimed at the senses. Those effects were on motor skills in children with DCD, not handwriting. The review puts help aimed at the task itself first.

Handwriting improves most consistently with handwriting practice; motor work alone has not been shown to improve it.

Is dyspraxia the same as dysgraphia?

No. Dyspraxia is not another name for dysgraphia.

Dysgraphia is a word for a pattern of trouble with handwriting, spelling, or getting thoughts onto paper. People use the word for different things.

A UK testing guide makes a related point (SASC, 2020). Its advice is about testing people 16 and older. It says writing trouble does not always come from poor motor skills. It says writing also takes thinking and spelling skills.

In our view, look at which job goes wrong. Is it reading the words, spelling them, forming the letters, or getting ideas down? On this page, we add one more job: moving and coordinating.

Handwriting improves most consistently with handwriting practice; motor work alone has not been shown to improve it.

What else can come with DCD?

One large UK study followed children from birth (Lingam and colleagues, 2010). Some children met its bar for likely DCD. These children more often met its bars for reading and spelling trouble. They also more often met its bar for attention trouble. The study shows a link. It cannot show that one causes the other. We could read only its summary.

When more than one area is hard, we look at more than one. Reading improves with reading instruction, so keep it going. Handwriting improves most consistently with handwriting practice; motor work alone has not been shown to improve it.

What helps with the writing?

Handwriting, spelling and getting ideas down each get better when taught.

• Handwriting. Santangelo and Graham (2016) pooled studies of teaching handwriting. Handwriting lessons made handwriting clearer and faster than other lessons or none.
• Spelling. In a 2014 review of 53 studies, Graham and Santangelo found that teaching spelling directly works. They also found gains in spelling while writing, not only on tests.
• Getting ideas down. Two reviews support teaching children how to plan and revise (Graham and Perin, 2007; Gillespie and Graham, 2014). The first covered grades 4 to 12. The second covered students with learning disabilities.

Work on handwriting, spelling and composing side by side.

Spelling improves with spelling instruction. Handwriting improves most consistently with handwriting practice; motor work alone has not been shown to improve it.

Who helps with DCD?

The NHS page says families may be referred to an occupational therapist. It also names a children's doctor. It names other health workers too. The healthdirect page names the same two. It adds physiotherapists.

Some children have trouble forming letters but no wider coordination trouble. That can be a different matter. One US researcher, Virginia Berninger, defines dysgraphia by handwriting (Berninger and O'Malley May, 2011). Her handout is about children with dysgraphia in that sense. It says they typically "do not qualify for occupational therapy services". Instead, it says, they "need specialized written language instruction from a teacher". Other experts did not check that handout before it came out.

In our view, if movement worries you as well as writing, tell the teacher and your child's doctor. If only the writing worries you, start with the teacher. Handwriting improves most consistently with handwriting practice; motor work alone has not been shown to improve it.

When to ask for help

Each of these is a reason to ask for help on its own.

• Little change, even with steady practice and good teaching.
• Writing well below your child's other schoolwork.
• A teacher who raises a concern about writing.
• Extreme upset about writing.
• Complete avoidance of writing.
• Hopelessness about learning.
• Sadness or worry that lasts.
• Significant delays in speech, language or motor development.
• A skill that was there and has gone. Our position is that a lost skill goes to a doctor first, not a tutor.

Start with the teacher. Say what you are seeing at home, and what you have tried. Beyond the teacher, the right person depends on what it turns out to be about. If the work is too hard, someone who works on that school skill. If worry or mood is the thing, someone who works with children's mental health. In our view, delays in speech, language or movement are worth raising with your child's doctor. In our view, if you are worried enough to ask, a professional evaluation is worth asking about.

Any talk of hurting themselves is a same-day call to your doctor or a crisis line.