This piece was written by our lovely Irish contributor Sophie and first published on her fantastic facebook page ‘Personal Training with Dyspraxia’ which chronicles are adventures in the gym.
GROSS MOTOR CO-ORDINATION SKILLS (LARGE MOVEMENTS):
Poor balance. Difficulty in riding a bicycle, going up and down hills
Poor posture and fatigue. Difficulty in standing for a long time as a result of weak muscle tone. Floppy, unstable round the joints. Some people with dyspraxia/DCD may have flat feet
Poor integration of the two sides of the body. Difficulty with some sports involving jumping and cycling
Poor hand-eye co-ordination. Difficulty with team sports especially those which involve catching a ball and batting. Difficulties with driving a car (adults)
Lack of rhythm when dancing, doing aerobics
Clumsy gait and movement. Difficulty changing direction, stopping and starting actions
Exaggerated ‘accessory movements’ such as flapping arms when running
Tendency to fall, trip, bump into things and people
Reading that, it’s understandable to see where the misconception comes from. But there’s more.
FINE MOTOR CO-ORDINATION SKILLS (SMALL MOVEMENTS):
Lack of manual dexterity. Poor at two-handed tasks, causing problems with using cutlery, cleaning, cooking, ironing, craft work, playing musical instruments
Poor manipulative skills. Difficulty with typing, handwriting and drawing. May have a poor pen grip, press too hard when writing and have difficulty when writing along a line. Difficulty copying information from a blackboard.
Inadequate grasp. Difficulty using tools and domestic implements, locks and keys
Difficulty with dressing and grooming activities, such as putting on makeup, shaving, (adults) doing hair, fastening clothes and tying shoelaces
POORLY ESTABLISHED HAND DOMINANCE:
May use either hand for different tasks at different times
Do you still think that dyspraxia is “just clumsiness”?
SPEECH AND LANGUAGE:
May talk continuously and repeat themselves. Some people with dyspraxia/DCD have difficulty with organising the content and sequence of their language
May have unclear speech and be unable to pronounce some words
Speech may have uncontrolled pitch, volume and rate
Do you still think that dyspraxia is “just clumsiness”?
EYE MOVEMENTS:
Tracking. Difficulty in following a moving object smoothly with eyes without moving head excessively. Tendency to lose the place while reading
Poor relocating. Cannot look quickly and effectively from one object to another (for example, looking from a TV to a magazine)
PERCEPTION (INTERPRETATION OF THE DIFFERENT SENSES):
Poor visual perception
Over-sensitive to light
Difficulty in distinguishing sounds from background noise. Tendency to be over-sensitive to noise
Over- or under-sensitive to touch. Can result in dislike of being touched and/or aversion to over-loose or tight clothing – tactile defensiveness
Over- or under-sensitive to smell and taste, temperature and pain
Lack of awareness of body position in space and spatial relationships. Can result in bumping into and tripping over things and people, dropping and spilling things
Little sense of time, speed, distance or weight. Leading to difficulties driving, cooking
Inadequate sense of direction. Difficulty distinguishing right from left means map reading skills are poor. (Adults)
Do you still think that dyspraxia is “just clumsiness”?
LEARNING, THOUGHT AND MEMORY:
Difficulty in planning and organising thought
Poor memory, especially short-term memory. May forget and lose things
Unfocused and erratic. Can be messy and cluttered
Poor sequencing causes problems with maths, reading and spelling and writing reports at work
Accuracy problems. Difficulty with copying sounds, writing, movements, proofreading
Difficulty in following instructions, especially more than one at a time
Difficulty with concentration. May be easily distracted
May do only one thing at a time properly, though may try to do many things at once
Slow to finish a task. May daydream and wander about aimlessly
Do you still think that dyspraxia is “just clumsiness?”
EMOTION AND BEHAVIOUR:
Difficulty in listening to people, especially in large groups. Can be tactless, interrupt frequently. Problems with team work
Difficulty in picking up non-verbal signals or in judging tone or pitch of voice in themselves and or others. Tendency to take things literally. May listen but not understand
Slow to adapt to new or unpredictable situations. Sometimes avoids them altogether
Impulsive. Tendency to be easily frustrated, wanting immediate gratification
EMOTIONS AS A RESULT OF DIFFICULTIES EXPERIENCED:
Tend to get stressed, depressed and anxious easily
May have difficulty sleeping
Prone to low self-esteem, emotional outbursts, phobias, fears, obsessions, compulsions and addictive behaviour.
Do you still think dyspraxia is “just clumsiness”?
Thank you Sophie, I can so identify with 95% of all the points you list. After 5 attempts I did learn to drive by age 21 and only recently stopped, but nearly every journey was filled with anxiety and tension – I needed 20 minutes to calm down before leaving the car. Due to bad motion sickness busses were a worse option to be avoided at all costs.
When I read some of the points they made me chukle. Although I never got a medical diagnosis, probably due to only realising that I was Dyspraxic in my 70s – since I no longer had the need to be helped, for example in doing A levels or in work because I was retired, the medical profession dismissed me.
Aside from all that I managed to never be ‘out of work’ although having to be away from work with anxiety or depression from time to time. I now enjoy retirement in spite of all the hurdles we as Dyspraics are faced with each day.
I am so pleased for you and all other younger people with Dyspraxia now that the condition is being accepted more. There is more work to do I know, but things have come a long way from my school days when I was told I was lazy, not trying or inept – and of course clumsy.
Thank you again for your post.
An excellent insight into Dyspraxia. I am a teacher trying to help a student with Dyspraxia at present. She is 16, has lost all her friendships during lockdown and is highly anxious and lonely in school now. Can you give me strategies that could support her please.
I am 63 and I only got diagnosed with Dyspraxia at age 47. Like you I always worked, but had 2 bouts of mental health sickness due to the pressures of work and dyspraxia. We both deserve at pat on the back for our efforts!
@JULIEANNE DENBY: Hi sorry that your comment has not been picked up and approved before today. What have you tried and are you centring this on her? The Dyspraxia Foundation have a Youth Group and it would be worth her connecting with them so she can have contact with other people of her age who are living with Dyspraxia.
I just wanted to say how brilliant it was to see your comment, it’s wonderful that there are teachers who care this much.
Absolutely spot on. Thank you. This is my 12 year old son.
Thank you! This is my daughter to a T!!! Going to copy and send to her teachers!