Old face returns to the forum (warning: long post!)

[melvin1990]

Hi, I’m Alex, and I’m twenty-two, from the North West of England. I’m a recent history graduate, and hope in the future either to become a teacher or to join the police.

As I mentioned, I graduated with a BA (Hons) in History about a year and a half ago. I’ve been a diagnosed dyspraxic since the age of four. In fact one of my strongest childhood memories is of going in a MRI scanner, or “washing machine” as it’s always been jokingly referred to by our family, to have the diagnosis confirmed.

Had a teaching assistant from Year 6 of primary school to leaving Sixth Form in Year 13, five years ago, which helped a lot. Wasn’t expected to do very well when it came to my GCSE’s, but passed with an A, two Bs and several C Grades. Without wishing to sound too big-headed, I’ve always been very proud of that, as well as my degree.

My main problems with dyspraxia are my poor motor skills, which cause me to be incredibly clumsy, constantly tripping up, bashing into things and the like. Also have great difficulty in completing what should be relatively simple tasks, such as tying shoelaces and scruffy handwriting.

I also have problems with Maths, and have my suspicions that this is down to Dyscalculia rather than Dyspraxia, but haven’t had an official diagnosis so can’t really say.

One thing I have found quite interesting is that my reading age was always rather high as a child, and have often wondered if this was perhaps a compensation for my poor maths skills, would be interested to hear if anyone else has had a similar experience.

I have grown up with dyspraxia and I count it as part of me now, so have no qualms about people asking questions about it, so feel free if there’s something you want to know.

Interests wise, I’m a passionate historian and just love reading and studying all kinds of history. I also enjoy reading and writing my own fiction. Favourite TV Shows include The Bill, Casualty and Frasier. I consider myself to be a very friendly and approachable person, so please don’t hesitate to ask question or chat to me.

Well I think that’s more than enough about me, looking forward to chatting with you all, and sharing experiences and coping strategies with you.

Thanks and apologies for the incredibly long post

Alex

[Shadwell]

welcome back Alex, great to see you back, and kicking (down our door again)!!

a little has happened here, got new members here, I am a mod now, and still loosing a battle against my computer!! but I am not going to give up, on the moding that is!!! but try not to be defeated by my computer having last word either! famous last words!!!

[lauraECFan]

Welcome back Your problems in dyspraxia are the exact same as mine and I also was always above my reading ageb kind of creepy lol

[melvin1990]

Thanks for the warm welcome, guys and hope to get back to chatting with you all on a more regular basis.

[AlleyCat]

In fact one of my strongest childhood memories is of going in a MRI scanner, or “washing machine” as it’s always been jokingly referred to by our family, to have the diagnosis confirmed.

Hi Alex. Can I ask how they were able to tell you had dyspraxia from a brain scan? Do you know what showed up (ie what parts of the brain showed that something was 'amiss')? I'm very interested in this, as I thought dyspraxia couldn't be detected on brain scans.

[melvin1990]

From what I can remember and what I've been told, I was rather a clumsy child, more than normally, so my parents took me to the doctor who referred me for further tests, including the MRI scan. I can only assume they were looking for abnormalities like a brain tumour or something, and other changes in my brain patterns were noted. With the results of the other tests, such as testing my motor skills and hand eye coordination, I was diagnosed with dyspraxia.

Hope this helps

Alex

[AlleyCat]

Yeah, that kind of answers my question. It would be interesting to know which brain waves, but you would of course have been too young to be told this- perhaps your parents were told which ones they were, but might not remember now because it was a long time ago.

[Willr0490]

Hello and welcome.

One thing I have found quite interesting is that my reading age was always rather high as a child, and have often wondered if this was perhaps a compensation for my poor maths skills, would be interested to hear if anyone else has had a similar experience.

Alex

That quote is definately something I experienced - when I was at primary school, I soared up the reading levels and year 4 of the Juniors got moved to the highest level for reading (the books normally reserved for the Year 5 and 6 children), which continued right to when I left primary school in 2001 - but my maths skills on the other hand were extremely poor.