Some of this was filed in by my mum, evidently...
To this I can now append all the problems I've had during the PGCE years which would fill out some of those 'struggles to organise' questions.
My diagnosis has now been enlarged to Dyspraxia
and Developmental Co-ordination Disorder.
-------------------------
Development History:
As a baby / young child were you aware of any problem in the following areas:
Complications during Pregnancy:
Two weeks before giving birth, LJ did not move at all. The doctors began to consider that he might have died in utereo as I had lost weight instead of gaining and a heartbeat could not be detected. Towards the end of the two weeks, the heartbeat was detected and inducement was considered but then birth resumed as normal and LJ was born weighing 6 pounds 3 & 1/2 ounces on 28th August 1980. It was as though that the placenta had stopped working.
Complications at or after birth:
LJ was difficult to feed and displayed persistent vomiting. He was also slow to put on weight (at 6 weeks he weighed only 7lb 6 oz. At 12 weeks, he weighed 10lb, 1oz.)
LJ did not follow normal sleep patterns. He hardly ever seemed to sleep. He never woke up less than five times a night, usually to be sick. Waking five times or more per night continued until he was three years and four months old, when his last tooth came through.
Teething was very difficult. Teeth were very slow to appear. He displayed a high temperature and very thick saliva, similar to egg white, which had to be pulled from his mouth.
At 17 months, LJ bumped his head and was detained overnight at Lister Hospital in Stevenage, where he recorded a temperature of 39oc and 40oc. Hospital staff were concerned. I knew LJ was like this all the time but it had not been seen by anyone until now. 2 days later he developed German Measles. I was relieved that his head x-ray revealed the teeth in his gums, waiting to descend.
Milestones:
Milestones were achieved late. He used to use the commando crawl. When walking: toes down first, heel second, instead of heel first and rolling onto toes. He had a rolling gait, heels not in contact with floor. Speaking began as normal. When LJ was older, I noticed he mumbled and did not pronounce words clearly. He had great trouble completing jigsaw puzzles. He would try to force pieces into the wrong places. He seemed to want to complete the picture ‘his way’.
Infections:
Please see attached medical records for 0 – 6 years.
This represents the time up until LJ was first referred to Great Ormond Street.
LJ had repeated water infections interspersed with tonsillitis. I considered Richard’s health to be in decline. He was covered in thick, black bruises, lacked energy, had a grey complexion and was either limping or dragging one leg. A blood test revealed a high white blood cell count, indicating a severe infection and our family Doctor feared LJ had Leukaemia. We were hastily sent to Great Ormond Street to be seen by a specialist. Leukaemia and other life-threatening illnesses were rules out after tests but GOSH staff also noticed Richard’s lack of co-ordination. It was, they felt, so bad that LJ was in their words, ‘one grade away from being considered spastic*.’ Further tests later determined that Richard’s problems (pains, limp, complexion etc.) were caused by his tonsils and these were removed in February 1988.
*In today's enlightened times this would be Cerebal Palsy, but I preserved the original comment for posterities sake.
Dressing for P.E, managing small buttons, fastening zips
LJ experienced trouble with dressing, particularly reversing clothes to face forward before putting them on. Buttons and toggles on duffel coats were particularly problematic.
Tying shoe laces, ties
Terrible trouble with shoelaces, finally mastered the knot and bow at age 11.
LJ still struggles today (26) with tying a tie.
Cutting with scissors, drawing, tracing with precision and accuracy
LJ always enjoyed drawing and tracing. Use of scissors was awkward – LJ wanted to use more than two fingers and a thumb in the loops.
Holding pencil with conventional grip
LJ used to hold his pencil like one would hold a javelin. LJ struggled to master the grip he was being taught in the nursery – the ‘pincer grip’ was floppy and he never had control of the nib. This began the lagging behind his peers in the presentation of his work.
Learning to write letters and numbers
LJ was unusual, in the sense that despite his poor written work he was ahead of his peers developmentally. He was very confident in using numbers. By the time he started nursery he could count up to 100 and recognised two-digit pairs, something his peer group could not. However his writing continued to be poor. His first year at school was truncated due to staff shortages. He only attended school for one term consisting of half-days from Easter to summer. When he returned to school in September, after his fifth birthday, he entered in the second year.
Richard’s work always stood out as different from his peers.
When he started school, to settle the children in, they all had to give some ‘news’ to the class, most children chose to speak about grandma coming to tea or a new pair of shoes they had bought. LJ chose to announce to a stunned classroom, quoting a recent news item, that “Some scientists believe, in the next 36 hours, Mount St Helens is going to erupt.†This demonstrates how he was already focusing on special interests - at home we were collecting a scrap book of newspapers cuttings and so he was aware of what was in the 'news'.
In a competition, the children were asked to paint on the theme ‘toybox’ – LJ disregarded this instruction and instead painted the African volcano Kilimanjaro with the snowy peaks.
He demonstrated a unique thoughtfulness compared to others as well as his passionate interest in volcanoes, earthquakes and tornadoes. He read avidly and developed early a wide vocabulary. He was obsessed with natural disasters of all kinds, and this was evident in a lot of his work and drawings.
When we were putting LJ to bed he did not want conventional storybooks. LJ was not interested in fiction books; he wanted textbooks about how everything worked, from volcanoes and the planet earth to telephones, televisions and all sorts. We chose to encourage this inquisitiveness by taking him to museums in London as he grew up.
Differentiating left and right?
LJ always uses cutlery with knife and fork reversed for a right-handed person.
Colliding with people and objects?
LJ couldn’t walk past anything without colliding with it, chairs, tables etc. Permanently covered in deep, black bruises.
Hopping, skipping, jumping?
At age 6 LJ was assessed at Great Ormond Street Hospital for his co-ordination His jumping, skipping, hopping on one leg were observed to be poor. He reminded me of a marionette with loose strings. He used to flail his arms and legs about when running.
Using apparatus in P.E?
Didn’t like going up things when he was young. Enjoyed climbing frames when he grew older.
Playing throw / catch?
There was no co-ordination whatsoever between Richard’s eyes, hands and feet. This lack of co-ordination made playing ball games hard if not impossible. Because of this LJ was never chosen to be in any team and was always placed last of all by the teacher.
If a ball was thrown to LJ he could not catch it, neither could he kick a ball.
Keeping time to a musical beat?
Enjoyed dancing to Status Quo: ‘Rockin’ all over the world’
Managing stairs and escalators?
No problem.
Overactive, unable to sit still, fiddled with objects?
It was a constant thing; he was always fiddling with things. This has not changed in the last 20 years.
Liked / disliked fast rides?
Didn’t like being dizzy or heights (roundabouts and slides); loved swings, seesaws
Easily distracted by background noise, movement outside classroom?
When LJ was interested in something he was not easily distracted.
Disliked waiting in line?
Not really.
Took longer to complete work?
LJ was always asking for reassurance. He always appeared anxious.
Upset by failure?
Cannot recall this at primary school.
As an older child were there problems….
Learning to ride a bicycle
Used stabilisers. Successfully learnt to ride a bike. Completed cycling proficiency.
Bumping into things, tripping, falling, more than fair share of bumps and bruises?
The clumsiness was more pronounced when LJ was younger but this problem did continue.
His unco-ordination made all collective games, especially P.E in secondary school, a misery.
When LJ was nine he was sent to an optometrist because he could not focus his eyes on a central near point. The optometrist recommended LJ practice with a lollipop stick as focal point and to bring it to his nose and try to keep the image focused. This was to train his eye muscles to stop them letting his eyes drift.
Before the exercise, Richard’s eyes would drift out on their own. When LJ first attempted to complete the exercise the optometrist recommended, his eyes would travel towards his nose about halfway and then abruptly shoot out to the sides in opposite directions. He no longer experiences this problem.
Car sickness
No.
Needing to consciously think about planning movement to learn new and unfamiliar tasks?
Normally children learn by repetition and LJ did not. He could do the same thing a thousand times but would not retain this knowledge or recall how to perform tasks. He doesn’t pick things up; he has to be specifically taught how to do something.
Organising approach to tasks?
The assessment by the Russell-Cairns Head Injury Unit indicated that Richard’s mental processes were very fast, but that he did not have full control of his writing hand. It was as if his brain was working so fast that his brain was at the end of the word but his writing was still at the start. This was how, it was estimated, that Richard’s writing became so jumbled, with capital letters appearing in the wrong places.
As a result of the diagnosis of dyspraxia, LJ had a personal tutor who helped him to plan his work rather than launch into it with little forethought or preparation. This was intended to get him to slow his brain down and so to be more precise with his hand.
Adapting to new or unexpected situations?
Mixed. Sometimes very timid, didn’t like unfamiliar people and places, other times bold and adventurous and keen to explore his environment.
LJ's poor social interaction as he has grown up has also been noticeable. Unlike his brother, LJ has very few friends. He has very little awareness of atmosphere or emotional cues. He himself has confessed to being over-literal and a very poor reader of other people in some instances. He finds judging when a conversation has ended or when it is his turn to speak difficult and is often excluded or interrupts inappropriately.
Remembering information
If something has LJ's interest and attention his recall can be almost perfect. His short-term memory however is fickle and he struggles with remembering processes and lists of instructions. LJ seems to retain information if he hears it spoken to him.
Following instructions in the right order
LJ says he occasionally struggles to remember too many instructions, if they are given as a list.
Developing mature and efficient handwriting
LJ concentrated on improving his handwriting and worked incredibly hard at it.
After his diagnosis, LJ did a lot of activities that encouraged fine-motor control; this ultimately fed into his ability to control pen and pencil movements and his handwriting consequently improved. He stopped trying to join up words and instead began to write each letter individually to make up the words. This is slow and laborious and it is how LJ continues to write today.
Copying from blackboard
LJ found it impossible to copy correctly from the board. Several worrying comments and tellings off from Richard’s secondary school regarding this, is what prompted his first assessment with Freda Newcombe that considered Dyspraxia as a possible cause and explanation. LJ was often upset that his best efforts seemed to continually lead to more tellings off.
Completing work on time
On time was not really the issue, it was more the accuracy and legibility of the work. Richard’s presentation was constantly criticised.
Low self-esteem
Constantly asks for reassurance.
LJ had a miserable time at school up until the sixth form; however, it was communicated to me by his teachers that the school did not consider LJ to be “of A-level material.â€
He frequently complained that if only he could explain his answers rather than having to write them down his grades would improve.
Just prior to when LJ was referred to Freda Newcombe, his secondary school teachers gave a brief assessment of Richard’s performance. One perceptive teacher noted his physical inability to co-ordinate movement and his frustration at not being able to meet expectations. He commented on the effort that LJ was putting in and his distress at not getting any positive results.
When LJ re-sat his A-levels at a local college, after receiving poor results at school, his new teachers expressed disbelief that such an articulate and intelligent child could have done so badly. His sociology teacher was so impressed with LJ's recall of sociological theory and depth of understanding, that he felt it rivalled his own. This highlights once again the disconnect between LJ's verbal performance, mental capacity and his inability to replicate these in his written answers.
Articulation deficits.
Growing up, his speech was inarticulate. He would often speak too quickly and he still doesn’t judge volume well. Much as his writing was jumbled so too was his speech. His rapid speech was I think a mark of his quick thinking but slow physical co-ordination of the speech organs.
Did you ever have a psychological assessment?
During his referral to Great Ormond Street, staff noted Richard’s poor co-ordination and his unusual relationship to adults. Whilst awaiting the operation for his tonsils LJ was seen repeatedly by psychiatrists (Wiseman and Rolf) at Great Ormond Street – although nothing ever came of this.
When LJ was thirteen he was referred to Russell-Cairns Head Injury Unit at the John Radcliffe Infirmary. He was assessed by consultant neruopsychologist Freda Newcombe during 1st October 1993. Her conclusions were that LJ demonstrated an above –average intelligence, impressive recall and reading skills but she suggested that the disconnect between his verbal skills and his written performance was significant and worrying. She concludes this was not dyslexia but that it may be explained by the emerging neuropsychological understanding of dyspraxia (apraxia).
She recommended one-to-one tutoring and that LJ learn I.T to develop the fine motor skills and re-focus on grammar and proper sentence structure. LJ was encouraged to play computer games and to paint small figures and take up playing the drums (hobbies he already enjoyed), as these would extend his dexterity and fine motor control. Dr Newcombe advised that ammenuensis or extra time in exams should also be considered.
Are there other members of your family with similar problems?
None insofar as we are aware.
As an Adult do you find any of the above areas still difficult?
Writing
I realise that what I write resembles my jumbled thinking. For instance I will occasionally split up a point I am making across several sentences. (I might even make a separate point in parenthesis.) But I will then resume my original point in a new sentence. Just like that. However that is an organisational issue in constructing the essay and it’s the kind of ‘structural mistake’ I make when writing, which I believe has made my sentences hard to read and my arguments difficult to assess.
Tripping
Occasionally I stumble when I walk. The experience is like I’ve forgotten to move my right leg and because I’ve not lifted it as part of my stride, I stagger forward. Family have noticed this and the floors are often even and smooth and there is nothing I have evidently tripped over, except my own feet.
Articulation
I do find myself occasionally confronted by being told I’m not speaking clearly or that I’m speaking too loudly. It is something I am not aware of until or unless someone tells me.
Learning by repetition.
This I still struggle to do. I find in confronting new or unfamiliar tasks my learning curve is steeper than most. Not because something is necessarily more difficult or I more incapable, but just that repetition does not lead to any greater or natural ‘grasp’ of what I am supposed to do. I have felt this in learning to drive (which took me the best part of two years and three tests.) It was noticeable to me that in all my mock tests and in the tests I failed, that the reason for my failing varied and that things I had previously mastered in lessons and prior tests, I would make mistakes with during the current test. I cannot attribute this solely to nerves because it happens all the time.
It feels sometimes as if I have no permanence when I have achieved something. Most recently I have felt this in revisiting the vexed issue of mathematics, where learning calculation methods has been a real and disproportionate struggle even though when I have the concepts and methods explained to me enough times I can eventually perform well. I have always benefited with one-to-one tuition and have for the past two years retained the services of a private mathematics tutor to supplement my learning.
Posture sitting/ standing
When I am sat down I find I often jiggle and family have commented on this. My legs particularly are rarely still and I will tap and fidget while reading or watching TV.
Reaction to fabrics / clothes labels
I feel I am quite touch-sensitive but in a good way. I like the way a lot of fabrics feel on my skin. It was remarked upon that I shop for clothes by texture not colour. I felt at the time this was because I am colour-blind (protanopia – deficiency in red/magenta) and so find colours inherently unreliable to judge by. However, I find myself attuned to texture more than I do almost anything else.
Time management or prioritising
Prioritising what needs to be done first or fastest is, I find, a struggle. I often think when I am required to ‘put things in order’ (as most part-time work consists in the menial and unimportant functionary tasks) that I behave methodically, that I will get things in order eventually but it takes time. I was once fired from such a minor post from a temp job in The Post Office for putting papers in alpha-numerical order too slowly!
Cluttered work / study area
My desk and rooms are always messy and disorganised. My brother’s is clinical by comparison; I don’t know how he does it! Even my ‘tidy’ is ‘messy.’
Organising, notes, having the correct items to hand
Generally I am capable of getting myself to work on time, going on trips (navigating London’s Tube network) or on holiday, catching flights and so on, so I’m not inhibited in that way.
My class-notes are usually cluttered, messy, and semi-illegible due to have to copy down material so fast that I simply abandon trying to write clearly. It has not been the case yet that I’ve copied down something I’ve later been unable to read.
Compared to friends from the same lecture, my notes stand out a mile
They reflect the way I think – so often consisting of arrows connecting ideas, thought bubbles of related material and of verbatim quotations from the lecture, as well as in maths, diagrams.
Although my notes are not illegible, I occasionally feel (in maths most recently) that when in lessons my notes make contextual sense, but outside of the context of the lessons I struggle to recall what it was the notes were meant to record. So I often struggle with homework, and to take recent example, calculating the probability distribution under a normal curve, I had plenty of examples copied down and some of the method, but whilst I could see how I’d solved previous problems I couldn’t translate that into a solution for the problem I was working on. This is often how it goes. Even if I remember the method for a particular style of problem, if the question is different and varied (as examiners are wont to do) then I don’t see how I take what I know and re-apply it. One-to-one tuition in mathematics has been incalculably beneficial to me in helping me to improve, as I can call a halt to something and have the concepts explained to me enough times until I get it. The experience of not remembering/recalling how to solve a mathematics problem is in many ways like my problems with grammar. I feel I ought to understand what to do but trying to think my way through a problem is like trying to swim through treacle. It takes such effort and I get nowhere with it.
I have requested extra time in my forth-coming A-level exams but have been told by the college that they need to see a more current assessment of my need before they will consider this.
Organising things is not something I do well. Dad jokes, I have filing systems but no retrieval system, so filing becomes a disorganised mess. I spent a productive morning last month organising four years worth of bank statements into time order with my Mum. I had enough sense to keep the account records but had no clue how to order them and the longer I waited the bigger the backlog had become.
Using a keyboard – speed and accuracy
Learning I.T skills was a specific recommendation of Freda Newcombe who first assessed me. This helped me to control the impulses to write, for instance, phonetic spellings for words I didn’t recognise (which spell-checking highlights) and also to reinforce the use of capital letters for names and proper nouns as well as leaving spaces between full stops and commas. I still practice these things today when I type and feel this has been a great benefit to me.
I have a fairly rapid typing speed, but an idiosyncratic typing style, that hovers somewhere between the two-fingered stab and touch-typing. I didn’t used to hold my hands in the conventional manner for typing although I have improved. My accuracy however is variable and I repeatedly make errors that I have to correct. When my speed and accuracy have been tested (in job applications) I have performed well although I failed an RSA exam for typing because of inaccuracy.
However where I feel the dyspraxia most keenly is in remembering and applying the rules of grammar. As a sequencing disorder, my thoughts appear on page as somewhat jumbled, and I struggle to get a point across, even if I know what I mean or want to try to express. I read my essays through now and I can feel like I am often repeating a point, and frequently what is evident is that my essays seem to lack a coherence but this is not as a result of a lack of research or ideas, usually the reverse – I have a lot of information to convey but apparently very little skill in discriminating effectively and moulding it to the purpose of an essay. A uniform theme of essays grades I receive back from university tutors is ‘great ideas Richard, shame about your lack of grammar / structure of argument.’ On those days it seems little has changed from when I was at school.
I feel my proofreading skills of what I have written are weak, and I often feel I lack the ‘common-sense’ to spot errors I have made. Friends and family have often helped me read my own work – and even then, I have received work back from university tutors, unaware of my condition, explicitly criticising my grammar and punctuation.
For Christmas I was given a book on proper grammar to correct my ‘shotgun’ approach to punctuating a sentence. She felt with my good long-term memory I would retain rules if they were clearly spelt out.
This has helped me make an improvement in my writing but concentrating on obeying the rules is an effort, I feel as I begin the PGCE that this is where I want professional help to improve rather than having to rely on the kindness of those close to me.
Reading: headaches, eyestrain, blurring of print, print moving
No I’ve never experienced any problem listed that I can recall with reading books. I love reading and frequently get lost in a book, which I experience very visually. I read very rapidly.
Find fluorescent lighting irritating and unpleasant
Not especially.
Computer monitors irritating and unpleasant.
No.
Any additional info:
Driving:
I learnt to drive a manual car recently and this was a real triumph over adversity for me. Having to concentrate on so many things simultaneously; having to co-ordinate different parts of my body when doing something complex like reversing (gazing out the back window, turning the wheel and operating the pedals); and telling left from right on manoeuvres such as parallel parking. For my test and pass plus exam, my instructor pasted “L†and “R†onto the steering wheel at my request.
Specific concerns I have about the PGCE are:
Essay Submissions:
Past experience has lead me to conclude that I need to declare this sequencing disorder as loudly and as clearly as I can, so my apparent disorganisation is not a wonder to my tutors. I want to access to a personal tutor who can help me to review my work for spelling, grammar and sense. This is a facility I have not had access to before and I feel now this is something I really want and need.
Cursive Script:
I am aware that a major function of teaching children how to write is to control the pencil and pen through the strokes required to form the graphemes of letters. This is traditionally done in the cursive script of ‘joined-up’ writing. I was advised by Freda Newcombe to abandon cursive script and print my letters. It was advice I took to heart and I have spent years practising and perfecting my own print script. (My fiancée has commented in the past that watching me write neatly is like watching me draw letters – I think this is accurate. I don’t write instinctively so much as carefully draw each letter in print form.) When I have worked in schools on a voluntary or part-time basis leading up to the PGCE I have not returned to cursive script on the board and I am nervous that I will be expected to as a student teacher. Compared to my print script, my attempts at cursive are awkward and imprecise.
PE:
My co-ordination has improved but I am an avowed non-sporty person. I will need some considerable instruction and help if I am to be expected to lead a class in physical exercise. I feel, being a man trying to entertain the possibility of a career in primary education, that there will be an expectation on me that this is a role I will naturally fill in a school – and this, I feel, will be a problem
Have you ever had any of the following?
A serious illness?
Abscess on left kidney 21.04.94
A serious injury (including head injuries)?
No.
Surgery?
Tonsilectomy. 05.02.88
Operation on nose to clear aberrant bone growth. 19.07.94
Convulsions / fits / epilepsy?
No.
Cerebral Palsy?
No.
Muscular Dystrophy?
No.
Polio?
No.
Stroke?
No.
Mental Illness (including anxiety of depression)?
No. I was pretty miserable at Warwick University and I think I displayed behaviour that was depression-related i.e. sleeping a lot as an avoidance – but I have never been clinically diagnosed with depression, anxiety or any other kind of mental illness and consider this to be coincidental.
Any other conditions or diagnosis?
Dichromatic Protanopia (Red-Green Colour Blindness)
Have you ever been diagnosed with any of the following?
Dyspraxia?
Yes. 05.10.93 – Freda Newcombe, Russell-Cairns Head Injury Unit, John Radcliffe Infirmary. Department of neurosurgery.
Dyslexia?
No.
Developmental Co-ordination Disorder?
No.
ADHD?
No.
ADD?
No.
Asperger’s Syndrome?
No.
Autism (or an Autistic Spectrum Disorder?)
Not unless you count dyspraxia as an ASD.
Learning Difficulties?
Only dyspraxia to date.