Finding out more about Dyspraxia

[DJH15]

Hi all,

I've been told from a young age that I have Dyspraxia. This was quite obvious with terrible hand writing, hand eye co-ordination and walking in a straight line. I got some support from teachers and attempted to get help at university (though they in my mind poorly communicated it and made it sound like I was paying for the assessment) but didn't really know how and why I needed help, as it was all down to co-ordination skills and that's it.

Last week, I was walking through my hometown and saw information about neuro-divergency and that Dyspraxia is one of them! I started to look into even further and I found out more about short term memory issues, difficulty understanding tasks, fear of getting things wrong, easily distracted etc and it made me realise I've been struggling through life when I could've got more help, I am now 33 years old. It doesn't help my partner has been getting frustrated with my lack of knowledge on household tasks (she chalks it down to my upbringing) but I think it's the fear of getting things wrong.

Has anyone else struggled with this realisation? What are good coping mechanisms that people have found to help with day to day life?

I'm not sure I've had an official diagnosis, so I am planning to visit my GPs to have a chat about it.

Thank you for reading, I'm looking forward to talking to more of you soon.

[Tom fod]

Hi all,

I've been told from a young age that I have Dyspraxia. This was quite obvious with terrible hand writing, hand eye co-ordination and walking in a straight line. I got some support from teachers and attempted to get help at university (though they in my mind poorly communicated it and made it sound like I was paying for the assessment) but didn't really know how and why I needed help, as it was all down to co-ordination skills and that's it.

Last week, I was walking through my hometown and saw information about neuro-divergency and that Dyspraxia is one of them! I started to look into even further and I found out more about short term memory issues, difficulty understanding tasks, fear of getting things wrong, easily distracted etc and it made me realise I've been struggling through life when I could've got more help, I am now 33 years old. It doesn't help my partner has been getting frustrated with my lack of knowledge on household tasks (she chalks it down to my upbringing) but I think it's the fear of getting things wrong.

Has anyone else struggled with this realisation? What are good coping mechanisms that people have found to help with day to day life?

I'm not sure I've had an official diagnosis, so I am planning to visit my GPs to have a chat about it.

Thank you for reading, I'm looking forward to talking to more of you soon.

Hi DJH15

Others' understanding of dyspraxia too often doesn't recognise. the fact it often also affects our ability to plan and carry out tasks (beyond the difficulties we might have with coordination and/or dexterity)

Key in coping strategies should be to be kind to and patient with ourselves and probably not to try and rush things or let people unfairly hurry us.

If during your upbringing you were not expected (or perhaps not even allowed) to do certain things then you can be forgiven for not having the natural knowledge of how to tackle them. If, worse, you were regularly shouted at and/or ridiculed for how you did things or tried then it's not surprising you have a fear of getting things wrong.

Based on what you've said I think your GP will have something and be able to confirm. I suspect there could be a degree of dependency on how well your local authorities' health and education services were joined as to whether your special educational needs may have been summarised for your patient record. When I was 14 I had to go to a GP and an Educational Psychologist as part of the process to create a Statement of Special Educational Need. I think it was possibly at that time that Dysoraxia was added to my patient notes summary. This did not click with me for another 20 years since I only discovered I was Dyspraxic in my mid-30s. All my support at school seemed more focussed on my visual impairment and I don't recall anyone trying to explain dyspraxia to me.