About this Short Film
Life with DCD, by Marsh & Gray (Australia, 2020), offers a clear, compassionate look at Developmental Coordination Disorder. The short film raises awareness about the everyday challenges and strengths of children and teenagers with DCD, and highlights intersections with sensory and physical disability. It speaks to advocates, educators and families while inviting audiences to better understand coordination difficulties without judgement. Screened as part of Focus on Ability, the film contributes to our festival’s commitment to showing diverse experiences of disability and promoting practical awareness and support. It makes a clear case for listening, adapting and supporting young people with DCD.
Film Details
Film Transcript
What is DCD and how does it affect everyday life? DCD is known as Developmental Coordination Disorder; it was previously known as dyspraxia. DCD is a disorder that causes people to have difficulty using their muscles in a coordinated way, so it makes things in daily life difficult. That could be anything from getting up and getting dressed to being able to brush your teeth, using cutlery, cutting, using pencils and those sorts of things.
What are the strengths and positive aspects of having DCD? People with DCD, we find, are really empathetic towards other people who are having difficulties because they know what it's like to find things tricky to do. They also tend to be really good at breaking things down into steps, because that's how they often learn how to do different tasks and to learn new things. We find that they're really good at finding new and different ways to help people and they're really good at out‑of‑the‑box thinking because their brains and their bodies don't tend to work in a typical manner. They find some really different, inventive ways to be able to do day‑to‑day things; they're kind of inventors and are often good at coming up with new ideas and creating things to help people do everyday tasks.
What are some ways to raise awareness about DCD? We find that DCD is really important to teach parents and teachers about, because you'll generally find that there's, statistically, one child in each classroom who will have DCD. It's important for other students within the school to know that maybe someone is finding PE difficult or is finding a particular task hard, and these are some of the ways that we can help them. Doing lots of information sessions is what we're trying to do: we get out to the schools and teach the teachers about what it looks like and also give information to the families so that they feel like they know what they're doing. It's also to give the individual who has DCD the words to say to people: "This is what my body is like, this is how you can help me," or, "No, I just need a bit more time — I'll figure it out." So it's about creating more information for people. There's not a lot of research that's been done in Australia, and we are pushing for that, but that's kind of a wait.
While DCD seems to present a lot of disadvantages, there are a lot of positive aspects as well. People with DCD tend to be extremely creative — creative in fact that people like Daniel Radcliffe and Jamie Oliver have gone extremely far in their careers with DCD. It's important to spread awareness about DCD, as it isn't even a recognised disability in Australia, unlike the UK and other parts of the world. Because it is an extremely unrecognised disorder, most parents and teachers don't even know about it.
Filmmaker
Marsh & Gray is the filmmaker behind this entry. See every Focus on Ability entry from Marsh & Gray.
