Help with helping someone with dyspraxia

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Legrandfromage
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Help with helping someone with dyspraxia

Post by Legrandfromage »

I am the manager of someone who has disclosed their dyspraxia to me.

Colleague is good at their job, very diligent, hard working...and hopeless as part of a team because of issues with communication, such as picking up verbal clues, seeing boundaries.

Colleague also has depression and anxiety.

I've been asked to make reasonable adjustments by this colleague, but I can't do this. It's not in my power to agree them. They have to go through a formal assessment process, during which the adjustments will be identified. They want adjustments for the depression not the dyspraxia. They are now refusing to go through this process because there is no guarantee that the adjustments will relate to the depression. In fact, I would say that it's the dyspraxia causing the majority of the issues, with the depression being a side, if unhelpful, issue.

Can any of the experts on here help with suggestions of how I can encourage this colleague to be assessed so that I can help them be happier at work? And so that their neurotypical colleagues can understand them better?
Tom fod
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Re: Help with helping someone with dyspraxia

Post by Tom fod »

Hi

Thank you for posting. I have moved this into the Work topic area.

Sadly depression and anxiety are sadly often part and parcel of being dyspraxic It all needs to be addressed. The assessment process is scary and your employee may be nervous of how the revelations of disclosure will be handled. Equally he or she may feel that depression/anxiety will be far better understood and accepted by his or her colleagues, than dyspraxia.

I'll send you a private message, in confidence, concerning my own experience.

http://www.dyspraxiafoundation.org.uk/d ... ia_1.0.pdf
Tom
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Jim
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Re: Help with helping someone with dyspraxia

Post by Jim »

I would echo the sentiment of encouraging them to attend a occupational health assessment. This would be their opportunity to provide you with the recommendations to facilitate reasonable adjustments.

As for the communication issues, I can see how this could be a barrier to good team work.

Many Dyspraxic's have trouble communicating effectively either through speech difficulty or sensory issues which affect concentration and listening skills. This is often compounded by the anxiety and resultant poor self esteem of trying to cope communicating with people of a 'normal' confidence and articulation.

But this isn't an intelligence or competency issue. And it's important to appreciate that the dyspraxic has a few more hinderances in communicating than most other people do and are therefore approaching things from a different and relatively unusual perspective. If you value diversity in the workplace then you will appreciate that this different perspective could represent an person who thinks 'outside of the box'.

Communication is a two way process, and a little improved awareness of dyspraxia and of the challenges it presents to people who have it could go some way to improving other people's tolerance and handling of situations where someome seems to communicate in an inexplicable way or who misinterprets seemingly simple cues.

For example, If you had someone who was hard of hearing, then the people of normal hearing would naturally accommodate the other person by adapting the way the way they talk to them so they have their best chance to communicate effectively.

It's a similar concept for a dyspraxic, we might not be death but many of us have sensory issues which affects our listening and concentration skills. But some very minor accommodations could go a long way to helping.

For example, when talking to them, make sure they've given you their full attention, give them the opportunity to stop or finish what they're doing first if it's important. Make sure they've understood you by getting them to summarise the instruction. Be clear and concise and try not to give them mixed signals.

Above all just be patient, their communication problems could actually be very minor and barley noticeable. But they will become a problem if other people are inpatient, intolerant or needlessly difficult with them because this will affect their confidence and self esteem.
“When the moon hits your eye like a big pizza pie
That's amore” :whistle:
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