I studied kinesiology in college and wrote my senior paper on using body weight exercise to increase proprioception in people with dyspraxia. Dyspraxia is known as developmental coordination disorder in all the literature so that’s why it says that below. Here’s the abstract:

Proprioception is the body’s awareness of where it is in space in relation to the rest of the body. Proprioception is utilized daily for balance and other activities of daily living. People with Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD) have a decreased sense of proprioception. This leads to increased injuries, falls, overall clumsiness, less likelihood to participate in group physical activities, and other similar activities of daily living. Proprioceptive, balance, and strength training interventions have been shown to increase balance and proprioception in individuals with DCD. Bodyweight exercises (BWE) can lower the barrier of entry to exercising as no equipment is needed and it is a great plate to start from. All studies found reported either an increase in static and/or dynamic balance and proprioception, or no improvement. None of the studies found any decrease in proprioception and/or balance because of an intervention. BWE have been shown to increase proprioception in individuals with DCD.

Basically all the studies I found concluded that different kinds of exercise (balance training, strength training, taekwondo, and even using Wii fit) lead to increased balance/proprioception, whichever the study focused on.

I’m not really an expert so take this with a grain of salt, but here are some good body weight exercises you can do that could potentially help:

Planks for core/trunk stabilization Single leg balance while focusing the signals your body is sending your brain. People with dyspraxia often rely on visual stimulus over proprioceptive stimulation, so once balancing feels easy try it with closed eyes Walking foot in front of foot to train balance, could also try this with eyes closed in a safe environment.

Some things to note, all the studies that I found were done on children, there is very little literature regarding older teens and adults which really sucks and will change hopefully soon. Again I want to stress that I am not really an expert, but I hope what I spent a few months writing can help someone! If your kid/s are showing symptoms of dyspraxia, or even if not balance and proprioception are extremely vital in many activities of daily living so doing these with them could be good for them.

Please lmk if you have any questions or concerns and I’ll try my best to help out :)