Views of and experiences with the Dyspraxia Foundation

[jelly1000]

I've just started following the Dyspraxia Foundation on twitter, however beyond that I've never engaged with them. A few reasons why: (apologies for the length of the first one)

-Until I was job hunting post university I hated thinking of myself as 'dyspraxic.' My Mum used the label to be extremely patronising, telling me I couldn't do things and almost revelling in what I couldn't do. I also really hated all the appointments I had to have associated with it- the physio therapy, occupational therapy, speech and language therapy as well as hospital appointments and endless tests for dyslexia (I'm not dyslexic). Certainly as a child I wished I'd never been diagnosed and could have been left to enjoy my childhood. It's only when I started job hunting and I struggled with interviews that I saw my diagnosis more positively- when I failed to get another job post interview I could say to myself 'I'm not stupid, just dyspraxic.' So until then I certainly didn't want to interact with an organisation supporting people with Dyspraxia. I still wouldn't want to see a physio/OT/SLT ever again.

-I found some aspects of the DF website quite patronising, particularly the way they describe some behaviour.

-Being able to join the youth group may have tempted me, however it is only for 16-25 year olds and I'm 26.

[Andrew_S_Hatton]

Welcome here jelly1000, I agree the DF do seems patronising at times, I hope folks here treat each other as equals.

[Pooky]

I offered the Dyspraxic Foundation the forum a while ago now (from memory maybe 6 years ago?) but I never got a response back, I have always found it difficult to communicate with them.

Myself and Daniel set the forum up many years ago when we were both trying to find out more information about Dyspraxia in Adults, at a time when there was very limited information on adults. I rarely visit this forum nowadays but I still look after the software updates, with Tom looking after all administration.

In all honesty as Tom knows I would rather someone else take on the backend hosting/software updates but until such medium is found I will continue to host the forum, and ensure it is secure.

Since the forum was set-up social media has grown and grown, however I believe there is still a place for forums where people would like to retain some anonymity (that you don't get with Facebook) when trying to self-discover more about themselves, in this instance Dyspraxia. In addition, you don't get the same pool of archive history with Facebook that you do with a forum.

[Andrew_S_Hatton]

Thank you, I would like to have a dialogue.