By ASI Wise & The Sensory Project
(#ayressensoryintegration)
A recent review published in Current Developmental Disorders Reports (2025), “The Unseen Struggle: Mapping and Addressing the Awareness Gap Surrounding Developmental Coordination Disorder” by Meachon and De Roubaix, highlights a truth many of us in practice already recognise: Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD), often known as Dyspraxia, remains misunderstood, under-identified, and poorly supported worldwide.
The review calls for better awareness, clearer pathways to support, and a united effort across education, healthcare, and research. At ASI Wise, we could not agree more. Yet, we also believe this discussion must go one step further; towards understanding the sensory foundations of coordination and praxis, and why awareness without sensory insight can never be enough.
The Missing Link: When Motor Tests Don’t Tell the Full Story
Tools such as the Movement Assessment Battery for Children (M-ABC) are widely used to identify coordination difficulties. These can be helpful for describing what is difficult, but they rarely help us understand why.
Many people with DCD show clear signs of underlying vestibular, proprioceptive, and somatosensory differences that are not captured by these standard tests. A person may “pass” on a test of fine or gross motor skills yet still struggle daily with:
- balance and postural control
- navigating through space
- maintaining rhythm or timing
- planning and sequencing everyday movements.
These are not simply coordination issues. They are expressions of how the brain and body work together — or sometimes, fail to integrate information from the senses efficiently.
When we focus only on performance, we miss the sensory story behind it.
Praxis is Sensory
At the heart of Ayres Sensory Integration (ASI) is the understanding that praxis, our ability to ideate, plan, and execute actions — is a sensory process. We cannot plan or perform coordinated actions without accurate information from our sensory systems, especially the vestibular and proprioceptive systems.
The vestibular system, triggered by head movement, helps us balance, orient, and regulate attention.
The proprioceptive system, informed by stretch receptors in muscles, ligaments, and tendons, supports body awareness and postural stability.
If either system is under-registered or poorly integrated, movement becomes uncertain, effortful, or inconsistent. What appears as “clumsiness” or “lack of coordination” is often the outward sign of a nervous system struggling to make sense of its own sensations.
This perspective changes everything. It shifts DCD from being viewed as a motor disorder to being understood as a sensory-motor participation difference, a concept that aligns perfectly with the article’s call to bridge awareness, practice, and policy.
Awareness Must Lead to Support
Meachon and De Roubaix’s paper paints a stark picture: even when DCD is recognised, diagnosis rarely leads to meaningful support. Parents often describe being left with a label but little guidance. Teachers express uncertainty about how to adapt environments or learning experiences. Health professionals feel under-prepared to offer advice beyond exercise or handwriting practice.
This is where Ayres Sensory Integration (ASI) offers a vital bridge between diagnosis and daily life.
At ASI Wise, our work focuses on co-producing sensory care pathways — collaborative processes that translate complex sensory information into practical, person-led strategies. Our tools, such as Sensory Ladders® and Sensory Spiders™, help individuals, families, and professionals visualise how sensory experiences influence emotional regulation, motivation, and action.
Through these tools, “doing” becomes understandable and change becomes possible.
From Awareness to Action
Raising awareness is only the beginning. For real change, we need to:
- Integrate sensory science into every DCD discussion — from early screening to teacher training.
- Acknowledge the vestibular and proprioceptive roots of praxis, and ensure assessments explore these foundations.
- Offer training that empowers professionals across disciplines to understand DCD as a sensory-neurodevelopmental condition, not just a coordination issue.
- Prioritise lived experience and co-production, ensuring that support reflects how people experience their bodies, rather than how others measure their movement.
- Create connected care pathways, linking occupational therapy, education, mental health, and community systems in the same conversation.
Every Step Matters
As the review concludes, “many small steps can ultimately lead to big wins.”
Each conversation with a teacher who begins to see movement as sensory, each parent who feels empowered to describe their child’s experiences, each professional who reframes a diagnosis into a journey of understanding; these are the wins that build a more inclusive future.
At ASI Wise, we will continue to advocate for embodied, sensory-informed approaches that help people not just move better, but live better.
Because awareness without understanding is not enough, and understanding begins in the senses.
References:
Meachon, E. J., & De Roubaix, A. (2025). The Unseen Struggle: Mapping and Addressing the Awareness Gap Surrounding Developmental Coordination Disorder. Current Developmental Disorders Reports, 12:21. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40474-025-00333-2