I'm 43 and have dealt with being dyspraxic all my life. I was lucky to have physio to help with co-ordination when young, and have since gotten into sports such as mountain biking and surfing. I know my balance and co-ordination aren't as natural as other peoples, but I have done well all the same considering. Can definitely recommend doing sport to improve motor control, as well as having a good time!
In this I feel that while I don't have the same baseline level of fine motor control as others, I do have a good spatial awareness. This is a visual and felt sense of the world around me, and I feel it's like a heightenend instinct for my 3 dimensional environment that helps to make up for deficits in my motor abilities. Which leads me on to verbalisation...
Whilst I do have really notable problems putting my thoughts into words to explain to others, I have an awareness of a sense of knowing that transcends language. I'm sure many people can tune into an intuition sense, but I wonder if in being dyspraxic, my intution has grown more muscular!? Rather like the intuition for my location in the physical world seems to have grown stronger in the absence of a strong reactive sportsman like motor control.
The modern world values highly being eloquent and meticulous in explaining oneself verbally. Maybe that's come from a mixture of scientific development and litigation culture. But our memories, thoughts, and intellectual concepts are first and foremost stored in non-verbal form. It's another leap to graft on the written on spoken language, we're acting as interpreters. And while not all of us are expert linguists, we may very well have potent intellects and/or world wisdom, instincts, strong ability to grasp and mold concepts etc.
I'm starting to trust more and more my intution, having felt somewhat stupid over the years in not being able to deliver verbal proofs of a conviction that I knew something at a profound and sophisticated level. In fact I am finding the intuition is soooo much faster than the verbal language, and I'm only just starting to learn to think in non-verbal ways, it's a kind of short-cut! I wonder if anyone has any experience in this way of thinking? It's almost as if there were a need for a paradigm of non-verbal cognitive practice!
I hope that all makes sense! I've become a trained counsellor over the past few years, so have a particular interest in both brain science and emotional wellbeing. I was trying to identify an emotional reaction I'd had to something the other day. After struggling for a couple of minutes for a concise verbal description, I tuned into the idea that words were getting in the way, and instantly came up with a gesture that summed it up far better than any clever sentence!
Nick.