Dyspraxia Awareness Week

A place to talk about your experience of living with Dyspraxia

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Lucy
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Dyspraxia Awareness Week

Post by Lucy »

Hi all,

So as it's Dyspraxia Awareness Week next week, I was wondering:
a) How others feel about the awareness week in general - are you glad it's there, indifferent, unaware of it, just generally if it matters to you?
b) If anyone is doing or taking part in any awareness-raising activity?
c) If anyone has a favourite video or infographic for explaining dyspraxia? I'm looking for something to share on social media next week, to at least make a token effort!

Thanks in advance!
Tom fod
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Re: Dyspraxia Awareness Week

Post by Tom fod »

Must confess It generally heightens my sense of apathy but contradictorily I have a friend who has just launched an online magazine Dyspraxia and Life for which I have so far written a couple of articles.

If anyone wants to mention this Forum in any awareness raising activity that would be great as it would be nice to see more posts and discussion from both established and new members.
Tom
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(from Peter and the Test Tube Babies, Foot Full of Bullets)
Jim1983
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Re: Dyspraxia Awareness Week

Post by Jim1983 »

I would love to know about where this magazine is available from.
AdiB47
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Re: Dyspraxia Awareness Week

Post by AdiB47 »

These themed weeks always creep up on me and I run out of time to do anything significant. So I won't be doing much but I'll probably be looking up an infographic or similar and sending it to my colleagues. I work in an educational setting where it is relevant but rarely considered, so hopefully it will raise a bit of awareness.
Andrew_S_Hatton
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Re: Dyspraxia Awareness Week

Post by Andrew_S_Hatton »

I presume it is The Dyspraxia Foundation that decided this was to be Awareness Week, presumably to capitalise on the start of a new series of Dr Who on BBC 1 TV at 7 pm this evening in the UK, Sunday 7th October 2018.

The inclusion of a Character with Dyspraxia, may have new folk, seeking information.
Jim1983
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Re: Dyspraxia Awareness Week

Post by Jim1983 »

Perhaps a good idea to spread awareness would be for everyone to write one simple perhaps amusing anecdote about the travails of life with dyspraxia on Facebook or other social media. Perhaps, with the heading 'It's Dyspraxia Awareness Week' and an appeal to share the anecdote. It could be about either the physical or social aspects, I personally would opt for the social aspects as this always seems to be the aspect which most are least aware of. Below is an example of what I had in mind.

It's Dyspraxia Awareness Week. To help spread awareness of the Specific Learning Difference 'Dyspraxia', those with dyspraxia are sharing anecdotes of what it's like to live with the condition on Facebook. So, here's mine, please help spread awareness of dyspraxia and share this post:

Taking things literally:
Dyspraxics have a different way of thinking. One aspect of this is how we interpret language, often analysing language on a very literal level and less so from context. This can lead to a lot of misunderstandings, some amusing and some less so. To give an example, here is a story of when I was sixteen years old and had applied for a Christmas temp-job at the catalogue store Argos.


The interview had started well, it was a relatively simple position that required picking and sorting items that had been ordered to be sent to the front desk for collection. The lady interviewing me was now explaining the precise duties that I would have to perform in the role. Normally, I am not a presumptuous person at all, however, this was how I was interpreted as being.


"You will be waiting for order numbers to come in, finding them in the storeroom and then placing them on the conveyor belt to the front desk."


This seems to be a perfectly inconspicuous statement, however, for me with my very literal dyspraxic mind there was one little word that caused me to become unstuck—'will'. Will is a word that means something is definite, is going to happen, it does not imply that something is hypothetical. Yet, in the interviewer's mind there was an unspoken context that most would pick up on, e.g. 'If you were to be given the job you will be...'

However, over what I had a perceived as confirmation that I had been given a job, I responded excitedly.

"Great! When do I start?"

Immediately, the interviewers face dropped.

"Excuse me! I never said that you had the job."

I just stood there utterly confused, because in my mind she had just said that I had got the job and then gotten angry with me when I had reacted happily to the news. From there, the interview was curtailed pretty rapidly and I was soon standing on the street outside of Argos bemusedly pondering what had just happened. Of course, as a thirty-five year-old adult I am now more experienced with dealing with this kind of issue and usually take a little time to question my own interpretation of what people say before I respond and tend to tell interviewers about my Dyspraxia as soon as the interview commences, though I do still occassionally get caught out by instances such as the one described.

This is just one example of the challenges that those with dyspraxia can face in day-to-day interactions. If you enjoyed this post and would like to help spread Dyspraxia Awareness, please share this post.
Andrew_S_Hatton
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Re: Dyspraxia Awareness Week

Post by Andrew_S_Hatton »

Brilliant, please spread that far and wide, I was thinking of something similar , earlier today, that my Mum would say and I (mistakenly) entirely believed her....



BUT.....


....right now I cannot remember what it was but it WILL PROBABLY come back to me.



COMMENTARY.

The Argos woman and my Mum were confused by the responses they received.

Hence , some times folk say nothing but avoid us in future, contributing to ME feeling unlikable and then isolating, to avoid such confrontations.
Jim1983
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Re: Dyspraxia Awareness Week

Post by Jim1983 »

Yes, quite so! I used to have a lot misunderstandings with my mum too. I remember once I had been watching a film and it was quite near the end. My mum asked me what the story was about. I replied that it was quite complicated and that she should watch it herself from the beginning (which was true). She then put on an angry face, marched out the living room and slammed the door. After thinking on it a while, I realised that she had had little interest in the plot of the film, but just wanted to engage me in small-talk, which from her view I had then rudely shut-down. When of course I was just in my own my mind giving what I thought was the most useful response. To this day small-talk baffles me.
Andrew_S_Hatton
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Re: Dyspraxia Awareness Week

Post by Andrew_S_Hatton »

Sadly we are not all intelligent enough to be able to think out such reactions, that is what dyspraxic children need to learn, I was in my fifties before I began to work out, it was due to different folk seeing similar things in unique ways.
Jim1983
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Re: Dyspraxia Awareness Week

Post by Jim1983 »

When I mean a while, I mean a long while. As in years of reflection. It would have been great if both myself and my family had been informed that this was something to be aware of when I was younger, so many misunderstandings, upset and arguments could have been avoided. Think of it only as good thing Andrew that you have managed to make yourself aware of this; and that you can use this knowledge to positively affect a younger generation of dyspraxics. (Don't be too hard on yourself :) )
Andrew_S_Hatton
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Re: Dyspraxia Awareness Week

Post by Andrew_S_Hatton »

Maybe.
Lucy
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Re: Dyspraxia Awareness Week

Post by Lucy »

Thanks for all your responses - sorry I have been so slow responding! I have been reading but couldn't sign into my account due to forgetting my password - sorted now though!

My theme has really been about compassion, including self-compassion. We can all be too hard on ourselves at times!
Andrew_S_Hatton
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Re: Dyspraxia Awareness Week

Post by Andrew_S_Hatton »

Thanks Lucy.

What about a Forum Meeting, at a regular time, once a week?

To get us started can you say a good time, that is YOU, dear reader, whoever you are for a live chat discussion, to consider that single topic ?

Can this Forum accommodate an online "chat" by typed contributions, you Internet Clever folk, reading, this?
Jim
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Re: Dyspraxia Awareness Week

Post by Jim »

Those are some great examples peeps.

For my part, I was.. if not surprised then disappointed by the awareness week. Mostly because ironically I was not even aware of it. If it hadn’t been for occasionally logging into here or having a dyspraxic Facebook friend who shared a story everyday then it would have passed me by entirely. Which is annoying. Here’s what I had to say about it on my Facebook page.
So it’s been dyspraxia awareness week.

The question I’d like to ask is.. is anyone outside the general dyspraxic networks actually aware of this?

I’m sorry but with the exception of the BBC’s Dr Who actually introducing a central character as dyspraxic I’ve seen absolutely nothing in the mainstream media.

You can’t move for TV blurting out the LBGT coming out stuff or just about anything else which already has more than ample coverage but absolutely diddly squat about dyspraxia during what is ‘supposed’ to be the dyspraxia awareness week.

How ironic is that?

It’s bad enough that it’s always overlooked in favour of the poster learning difficulties, i.e. Dyslexia, Austism etc.

So why isn’t there more being done? Why aren’t the Dyspraxia Foundation getting a better audience within the media? Why do we have to rely on their relatively narrow network on social media?

If it wasn’t for having a Dyspraxic friend on Facebook, this week valiantly sharing a story every day about their dyspraxia. Then I too would have been completely oblivious that it was apparently supposed to be a week of awareness.

I am a dyspraxic.

How poor is that, that I didn’t even know there was supposed an awareness campaign?
It was a bit of a rant I grant you. However it did at least achieve one tiny bit of awareness as one of my other Facebook friends replied and said that they had never heard of it before but had now been made aware by my post.
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That's amore” :whistle:
Andrew_S_Hatton
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Re: Dyspraxia Awareness Week

Post by Andrew_S_Hatton »

I think to build up momentum we have to do it one person at a time.

So thanks to Him, I know it is frustrating, I have been at it since 1999.

I want to blame others, but bit is better to do something constructive and not waste energy blaming.

I want to see if a way forward can be found by several of us being on line simultaneously.
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