Dyspraxia or just me?

A place to talk about your experience of living with Dyspraxia

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Grackle
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Dyspraxia or just me?

Post by Grackle »

I've been wondering about a few things that I have some trouble with and am not sure if it is just personal quirks or if it seems to have roots in dyspraxia. If it is dyspraxia, does anyone have any idea why this happens?

Left/Right Coordination - I have a lot of trouble with coordination between the two sides of my body. I don't have trouble with doing different movements. I like to swim for example, and I have no trouble with the front crawl (left and right doing different things at the same time but I have had a lot of trouble with the breast stroke. I can't get my right and left leg to come together at the same time (one leg lags behind, one arm lags). This has an effect in areas other than swimming and caused a lot of frustration for me as a child.

Spatial Sense - The things that I've read suggest that we have a trouble moving our body through space which is why we bump into things etc. What about sense of direction though? It doesn't seem the same to me as moving the body but I have a big problem with it. I also don't always recognize things that I've seen before. I also have a problem with judging distance, volume etc. My partner and I both find it funny that if there are two glasses - with one short and wide and the other talk and narrow - that I can't tell which has more liquid (conservation of mass). I also measure everything when I'm cooking. - I just can't judge what one cup looks like when I don't measure it. Are these all spatial?

Speech - I didn't have many speech problems as a child (I had some difficulty making certain sounds like fl in fly, floor etc.). I find that when I have a lot to say, I say some things in the wrong order or miss some words. It feels like my brain is going too fast for my mouth.

I'm sure that there are more things that I can think of but I am curious.
Grackle
agsiul
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Re: Dyspraxia or just me?

Post by agsiul »

Left/Right Coordination - This is really common as far as I know. I have always had the same problem. I think it's called crossing the central line. When I see kids that can't bless themselve properly or the other one that I had was with dancing. Everything had to be done leading off from one side of the body and then swopping it over the other way. one way was ok but swopping was a disaster. I also have a problem with breststroke. My left leg does it's own thing. I don't do it anymore because I was told it was too hard on my lower back and it's weak.

Spatial Sense - I have a good one. When you talk in irish you have to describe where you are going from your position now so you can't just say for example that you are going to the shop you have to say that you are going "west to the shop" . Or when you are going up the stairs you can't just say that you are going up the stairs you have to take into consideration where you are. #-o I never know where I am or which direction I'm going so inevitably I end up saying the wrong thing. photos are a pain too. when they tell you the list of people from left to right....i couldn't get my head around the idea that it was the left to right looking at the picture. I have huge problems with measures as well particularly the size of a room or how big a piece of furniuter is etc. have to measure and lay out pieces of plastic etc.

Speech - I hear ye. do you have word finding difficulties. often I say the wrong word. it could be similar in meaning to the one I'm looking for but totally wrong
Grackle
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Re: Dyspraxia or just me?

Post by Grackle »

I'm very fortunate that I don't speak Irish then. If people tell me to go west or east, I haven't a clue. Strangely though, I do know my left and right (which thankfully doesn't change depending on where you are like north, south etc. do).I took ballet for 5 years and my ballet instructor was really determined to teach me the left-right thing. She would take my left arm and pull my whole body to the left and the same with right. She also carried a fly swatter and wasn't afraid to use :) Eventually, it stuck and I still know left-right - much better than my partner who isn't dyspraxic.

When I say sense of direction, it's kind of more than that too. When I come out of a store in the mall, I don't remember which way I came in so I turn the wrong way coming out. I also don't notice things sometimes. I was in a strange city at a conference and they had a pub night. I had to get myself back to the hotel afterwords and I had a map (I'm pretty good with maps) but I walked around the same block about 4 times and couldn't find the hotel. I asked directions twice. Finally, I walked the same block and there was the hotel. It was set back from the street a bit and there was a bigger hotel beside it. It wasn't really spatial, I just couldn't identify it.

Yes, I lose words constantly. I can come out with a synonym or a description of what the words means but I just can't grasp it. I find this so frustrating because I feel as if I sound stupid (or drunk or something).
agsiul
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Re: Dyspraxia or just me?

Post by agsiul »

I hear ye. Hate that ...you do sound stupid. one of the ones in work who gives me a pain in the face talks to me as if I'm halfwitted because of it. My mother inserupts me while I'm talking knowing full well that I loose my train of thought and get fluterserd and then talks to me as if I'm stupid. I know what you mean about the shops....do it all the time. Also if I don't plan my rount visually in my head I could end up anywhere. You'd think I lived in a vast metropolis! Thank God I don't.
Grackle
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Re: Dyspraxia or just me?

Post by Grackle »

I don't drive so at least I get lost slowly :lol:
Catwoman42
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Re: Dyspraxia or just me?

Post by Catwoman42 »

My left/right thing is poor. My friend was driving me last night and asked which way he should turn, I had to just point. My typing is poor. My spatial awareness is also fairly bad, I bang into things quite a lot.
If I see someone I know, even someone I know well, but not where I usually see them, I can't always recognise them.

My speech is fine (could talk for Scotland!) but if I get interrupted I completely lose my train of thought.
agsiul
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Re: Dyspraxia or just me?

Post by agsiul »

I'm very good at remembering faces....awful at names but my Dad wouldn't recognise us if he wasn't expecting to see us. It's quite funny if you were to stop and talk to him he'd be looking at you with that expression....I'm sure I should know that person, clearly they know me because they've stoped to talk to me but who the hell are they...you can see him racking his brain trying to figure it out!
Evasura
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Re: Dyspraxia or just me?

Post by Evasura »

Wow! that seems to be a very common thing then:
I can tell left from right, but not east from West. To do it, I have to imagiune myself looking at a world map and thinking that Asia, which is on the right hand side of the map , is the East and that the States is the Far west. On a street, I cannot tell at all where I am and I do tend to walk on the oposite direction that I should after getting in a shop. to find my way to places, unless is a route that I do every day and I know perfectly well, even with a map I get lost. I now use google maps, with the street view tool, but that just helps once I'm in the place. I always get lost the first, second and third time that I go to a place. Some streets are particularly bad, and I still cannot remember them, even though I've been there plenty of times. I cycle, so I follow cars routes. Whne I get a diversion on the road, it drives me mad, because I cannot follow my normal route and I get lost as well.
Pretty bad at getting the right word as well. It normally comes back after a few hours, when I've stopped thinking about it and I often text friends hours later explaining what I was meaning to say. People who don't klnow me think that I am stupid or completely ignorant. But hey, my real friends know what it is about and if they're not pacient with that, then probably they're not real friends. :banana:
Eva in London
Daniel
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Re: Dyspraxia or just me?

Post by Daniel »

I'm not sure it's unusual to find compass bearings tricky, not least as maps are normally orientated to the North and you have to work out your position with this in mind. It's also particularly confusing in London, where tube platforms are displayed as North-South at some stations and East-West at others.

Daniel
agsiul
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Re: Dyspraxia or just me?

Post by agsiul »

I thought of something....when I can't remember a word but I can almost find it. Instead of saying that it's on the tip of my tongue I say that it is on the tip of my brain because that is what it feels like :grin:
Grackle
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Re: Dyspraxia or just me?

Post by Grackle »

Catwoman42 wrote:If I see someone I know, even someone I know well, but not where I usually see them, I can't always recognise them.
I so understand this. I tell people that they are "out of context" when I don't recognize them in a different place :lol:
agsiul wrote:I thought of something....when I can't remember a word but I can almost find it. Instead of saying that it's on the tip of my tongue I say that it is on the tip of my brain because that is what it feels like :grin:
=D> I love this! I will have to say it and see what the reaction is.
Evasura wrote:Wow! that seems to be a very common thing then: I can tell left from right, but not east from West. To do it, I have to imagiune myself looking at a world map and thinking that Asia, which is on the right hand side of the map , is the East and that the States is the Far west. On a street, I cannot tell at all where I am and I do tend to walk on the oposite direction that I should after getting in a shop.
I imagine a map of Canada when I try to figure out directions. It was much easier when I lived in city with huge landmarks. When I lived in Vancouver, the mountains that I could see were in the north and the ocean was to the west so i could orient myself according to where they were.
I also do well with cities laid out on a grid (probably not something you get in older countries or cities). All the avenues ran east-west. Streets and roads were north-south. Your street address helped give an exact location so, I lived on 116 street. My house address was 7728 116 street - the first number of the house address described which cross street we were near - we lived closest to 77th avenue. I think that a dyspraxic must have come up with the grid city idea :grin:
yvonnel
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Re: Dyspraxia or just me?

Post by yvonnel »

I have this great abilty to get lost places I have been several times before. or the rare occassions of getting somewhere without getting lost I will on the way home. The thing with the shops I really understand cant work out which way I was walking up the street before I entered
Left to right I get now after having an eye operation on my left eye I knew the sore eye was left if people ask me left or right I have to do in relation to my eye but hey it works.
Stopfordian-Matt
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Re: Dyspraxia or just me?

Post by Stopfordian-Matt »

i always get confused with left and right its really annoying especially when someone stops me in the street and asks me for directions!

the spatial sence isnt really a big problem for me although i do bump into things alot lol

when i speak i speak really fast and aften sounds really sluured (mostly when im nervous/anxious)

something else which is annoying i always get d and b mixed up (before i use the letter i have to picture the wrods 'dog' and 'bog' in my head to see which looks right) i also get words mixed up when they're simular, eg inspect and expect, effect and affect ect

matt x
Captain_Ludd
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Re: Dyspraxia or just me?

Post by Captain_Ludd »

Yup, I struggle with the left right co-ordination thing too, I' m also not great with directions etc, it all linked into the poor spatial perception caused by in-maturities in the brain.
What really blows my mind and I still can't get the hang of is that whole your left my right thing, I understand the concept but my brain just can deal with it in the real world ](*,) .
LGC2108
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Re: Dyspraxia or just me?

Post by LGC2108 »

I often have difficulty with left/right coordination and spatial awareness, and attended speech therapy when I was a child.
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