History of Dyspraxia

Dyspraxia is a recent addition to historical accounts of specific learning difficulties. This entry provides a summary of dyspraxia’s history—from general discussions of clumsiness in the ancient world, through expanding twentieth-century interest in specific difficulties with motor skills, up to present-day knowledge of dyspraxia, sometimes called developmental coordination disorder. It also considers the conceptual and philosophical questions that underpin these historical enquiries, including the relative importance of the social and the biological in conceptualizations of dyspraxia.