Advise / information needed from auties with dyspraxia.

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Hello Auties,

If any of you also have co-morbid global / whole-body dyspraxia and / or speech apraxia, then I would like some advise / information on what - including medications / interventions / exercises etc - has helped your motor planning, coordination and fine motor challenges.

TIA.

None of you guys and gals have, or know anyone else who has, dyspraxia ? Surely apraxia and autism are not rare comorbids ?

I don't know.

Is dyspraxia to do with coordination?

That, and also with motor planning. Some people may only have dyspraxia of specific muscles (for example oculo-motor dyspraxia that makes it difficult to plan and execute movements of the muscles of the eyes), while others - like my son - have global dyspraxia.

I am hoping to hear from communicative adults who have both autism and apraxia / dyspraxia on what helped them the most with overcoming their challenges with motor planning and remediating any deficits in motor skills.

Oh no sorry, I don't have those problems.

It sounds quite serious.

I hope you find the help you need.

I found this for you.

http://www.autism.org.uk/about-autism/r ... rders.aspx

I mean as far as I know I don't have Dyspraxia and no one else I know does, but I don't think it would be that rare. However, I don't know. Hope you get some helpful answers!

I'm clumsy, bump into walls, constantly stub my toe because I can't judge where doorways are, and I can't drive or play computer games that require any kind of coordination, but I'm not sure if that's dyspraxia or just bad spatial perception?

In my case I just have to pay extra careful attention near doorways so I don't hurt myself, and aside from the 'not driving' part it doesn't really affect my life too severely, so I haven't looked into whether there's therapy for that.

But it sounds like your son has trouble actually getting his body to do what he wants it to do, and I think that's a whole different issue... Hopefully someone here knows more about that?

I think I was diagnosed with some kind of motor dyspraxia by the OT I saw for my sensory issues. If I have dyspraxia it is mild.

I don't really have problems with getting my body to do what I want it to do (not significant ones, anyways) as much as I have problems with learning complex/unfamiliar movements and with learning and consciously remembering sequences of movements. Once I know what the movement/whole sequence of movements physically feels like (as opposed to just knowing what it should look like when someone else does it -- which doesn't translate very well or at all into knowing what it should feel like..... plus, when someone shows me how to do something I'm looking at them and usually from a vantage point where I'm seeing something completely different than what I'll be seeing when I do it so it's not even useful for establishing visual memory/visual cues to guide me when I actually attempt to do the movement myself) and, for sequences of movements, once I've gone through the sequence so many times that each movement is an automatic cue for the next, then everything is more or less fine as long as I don't get distracted.

For me, the most helpful thing is a whole lot of practice over time. Whenever possible, it also helps to show me things in parallel -- to stand/sit beside me so that my vantage point of you and your limbs and whatever objects are involved in a motor task is similar to my vantage point for me and my limbs and whatever objects are involved (I can rotate the image in my mind, but it's an extra thing to do and I have to keep switching back and forth between the original and the flipped around translation which interferes with trying to keep the whole mental film in sequence because my working memory sucks). Taking medication for my ADHD (I have both autism and ADHD) also helps because my sequencing/organizing difficulties are global problems rather than only existing in the area of motor coordination.

Last edited by animalcrackers on 01 Nov 2015, 6:59 pm, edited 2 times in total.

Hismom, I believe Ezra S has that. He may not have seem your post. I think he is fine to be pm'd though if you want to ask him. You might be able to reach him quicker if you pm him and you need advice quickly.

I have dyspraxia. The thing that actually helped me the most when I was a kid was doing martial arts. It not only helped me to learn to control my body movements and improve my coordination, but it also made me stronger (I also have low muscle tone, which is still very much a problem for me).

I still struggle with motor planning and am constantly running into things or dropping things. I also still have poor coordination (I remember my dad trying to teach me to drive a stick and giving up because I just couldn't master havibg each hand and foot doing something different) and can't use scissors and struggle to tie my shoes. But I think that I am a lot better off than I would have been.

Yes I have severe dyspraxia, effecting both gross and fine motor skills and also speech. I get physical therapy for it and speech therapy too. So have just gone through the various exercises which include martial arts type movements.With timing being taught to walk to a tempo. They said I would never walk and now I go for fairly long nature walks and hikes. Lots time effort and practice.

Hello nuttyengineer and Ezra,

What sort of martial arts movements would you suggest for a beginner with severe (and global) dyspraxia ?

Also, Ezra, what sort of exercises do you do, in addition to the martial arts ? Are you seeing a lot of change / improvement in your ability to motor plan and execute actions ? Are you able to write, especially ?

Thanks to you both for your feedback. Much appreciated.

Stuff as basic as touching my finger to my nose. Putting different shaped pegs into holes. Walking on a laid out step pattern. Working with modeling clay. Lots of different stuff they have me do at special needs school, following the curriculum. I just started doing Tai Chi a couple of years ago and still fall down a lot. I can write, but not all that good or for very long. Therapy, training, practice, patience, persistence. There has been a lot of achievement. Still have a ways to go. There have been many times I have been extremely difficult to work with and I have had plenty of meltdowns.

I don't know that I'm really qualified to give you specific moves, especially via internet, but I did Taekwondo for years and the thing that really helped me was going through the forms (or patterns) where you have to do a particular sequence. The first minute of the this video shows the most basic of these:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=BqxNffnIJJw But I really don't recommend trying to do any martial arts without an instructor because you could really hurt yourself.

Another thing that has really helped me has been to practice the the things that I've struggled with and to just understand that I will figure them out eventually, it just takes more work than for others.