A letter to my former teachers.

[ArcticRose]

I recently got diagnosed with dyspraxia. As a child my balance and cross motor movements were so bad that I was in physiotherapy for 7 years. That meant I was technically diagnosed with the physical side of dyspraxia but was never given the diagnoses. I think many thought that it would go away if i exercised more.

In school they wondered whether I had dyslexia but as my recent assessment showed I am not dyslexic. However some tendencies are similar between dyslexia and dyspraxia. Thats why teachers suspected it but didn't consider the symptoms to be extreme enough to be sent for a dyslexia assessment. Well the symptoms weren't extreme enough because I am not dyslexic im DYSPRAXIC!

There didn't seem to be any knowledge about dyspraxia (this school is not in the UK) but those with ADHD and Dyslexia recieved a lot of good help. Because of my late diagnoses at 18 things are just a little bit more difficult, I have lived my whole life thinking that I am lazy and stupid.

So today I sent a polite letter to my former teacher with information about dyspraxia. Its estimated that one in thirty children have dyspraxia and I don't want another child to go through what I did. Early help is very important.

[AlleyCat]

That seems like a good idea- I don't know if the teacher will take notice or not, but hopefully she will. It really annoys me that a few teachers when I was at school commented on things which were caused by dyspraxia, but didn't think to investigate further or have a discussion with my parents. I had a PE teacher who came out with the stereotypical 'lazy, can't be bothered' comments because I was no good at team games involving catching, throwing and hitting. There was also a GCSE science teacher who complained about my presentation skills and an English teacher who complained several times about my handwriting. The English teacher sadly died about 5 years ago of cancer in her late forties- it's quite likely that she died not even knowing that dyspraxia exists, and that it was the cause of my 'poor handwriting' although I was trying my best.

[Tim G]

Grate idea to send a letter to your former teachers and school - hopefully it will raise there awareness of dyspraxicia and hopefully help others.
Its usual for people with ADHD and / or dyslexia to get help as its a lot more known about and more understood however dyspraxicia still remains unknown to a grate majority.

There is no need for someone to say your lazy or cant be bothered just because you can't catch or good at PE / sports. As long as you were at least trying then that's the complete opposite to not being bothered they should have at least seen that and agnolaged it instead of just putting you down.

[Willr0490]

I think that sounds like a good idea. I have often toyed with the idea of writing a letter to my year 2 primary school teacher.

[AlexandraK]

None of my teachers ever mentioned or expected any issues with myself and I had to get my high school and college grades through sheer hard work and time. And my younger cousin is suffering with much worse difficulties than myself and her high school refuses to assess her which quite frankly is horrendous.

The interesting thing is, in the first week of Art college I was pulled aside and they said there was a serious issue with how I structure and write things and that I was going to suffer if I didn't get a dyslexia assessment done, 5 months down the line I'm diagnosed a dyspraxic person and I have struggled all of my life for absolutely no reason other than neglect from the shoddy UK education system.

And to top it all off none of my friends even know what effects it can have other than 'make someone clumsy'.

I was also diagnosed at the age of 18. A little too late if you ask me, I find it interesting to find people in the same boat as I.
There is clearly a weakness in the education system, their ignorance needs to be dealt with and more information needs to be fed to teachers and students alike.

[AlleyCat]

Hi Alexandra. I agree that people with dyspraxia shouldn't have to wait until adulthood before someone realises that they have it. It's interesting that concerns were raised about you because of your essays lacking structure, as that's also something which has been a problem for me although no teacher or lecturer ever singled that out as being an issue. In my case teachers seemed to think that I was going to be fine academically because my reading skills were good, so they didn't consider that I might be let down by the structure of my written work (although a few of them complained about how untidy my handwriting was). IMO my problems with structuring written work let me down when doing A level English literature, as I found it difficult to quickly think of how to organise an essay effectively under the pressure of exams. As I hadn't been diagnosed with dyspraxia at that point, I didn't get any extra time. I also found it hard to organise the work in my folders, so everything was just thrown in randomly (ie there were no separate sections for different areas such as character, imagery, developments in plot etc), which made it much harder to revise. It's frustrating to think that no one realised that I had dyspraxia and needed extra support with things like this.

[ALADDIN]

Hi everyone,

I tried to see an educational psychologist in the year 2000, my GP did not think I needed an education psychologist. I found Postgrad study, very stressful. I think, part of the problem is that I have a high IQ, people think that clever people do no not have any problems. I attended a high achieving, private school.

I think, society has matured. We need to treat, each condition individually.

I frustrated, I had a patchy understanding of dyspraxia. Unfortunately, I feel that the situation will not improve significantly.

[lauraECFan]

Good on you Teachers really need to learn how to deal with things like this (currently in college and i have an epileptic friend who seemed on the verge of seziure and lsa clapped in her face claiming she faked it) bad I know they r trained to deal with stuff like that

[Joshua Perk]

Teachers should have a basic study on how to deal with these students as they need somehow a special attention.

And I agree though not just in elementary/secondary but also in college.





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[Guardian]

Just speaking from personally experience I wouldn't say the way my dyspraxia was managed in school was highly effective and I went to a fee paying high quality school.

Having said that it all comes down to the teacher, I had some absolutely brilliant teachers when I was at school who helped me to achieve greatly and I also had some absolutely sub standard teachers who to this day I consider very incompetent.

So yes better training and better understanding is required undoubtedly but if the people in the role are unwilling or unable to listen & learn then it will all be in vain and that applies not just to dyspraxia but to a great many things.