Autistic Motor issues not thought about enough

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Motor problems in autistic people may be grossly underestimated

I agree with everything that's been written in that article. I also think that motor skills need to be screened more.

The first psych appt I had after moving down here the pdoc had me do some things with my hands, and then declared I was quite dyspraxic . School reports mentioned my poor coordination . It's also been mentioned by my father and sister. My late wife said I walked funny. My stepdaughter has said I'm the clumsiest person she's known , and that I walk like I'm drunk.

Autism is a whole body condition, when one includes the high rates of epilepsy ( something that can kill ) GI issues and motor problems. Heart issues are also common unfortunatly.

It goes a long way in explaining our shortened life expectancy.

It does make a mockery of the shallow claims of many in the ND movement that with a few tweaks societal here and there all will be ok.

The main long term salvation for us is through science research and therapy.

Of course better public education, provisions and workplace opportunities are important too.

Some motor issues may be hard to spot.
My type of clumsiness - fitting the description of ideomotor dyspraxia but never actually diagnosed as such - does not manifest in any obvious way, just spilling drinks, dropping things, missing touch fields and being unable to play most video games. However, learned movements are okay, I play guitar, I could jump on stairs in the darkness if I knew those stairs.
So, one would need much more than some simple screening to spot any problem.

But it may be okay, all I've read about dyspraxia therapy is learning workarounds and this is exactly what I did just to survive.

That’s pretty much my type, too.

What I have a “learning disability” in—is benefiting from visual directions. And the visual in general. I need both words and visual directions, plus hands-on actual experience.

This is very interesting. I am a bit clumsy, but like some of you, my motor issues aren’t necessarily very obvious. I feel like we could add muscle strength impairment to this list too. I was never as strong as my peers growing up. But I could play instruments and draw, skip, hop, etc.

I could never throw a basketball as far as my classmates did, or hit a volleyball for a proper serve. I was just not as strong or very coordinated with my gross motor skills relating to sports.

Growing up, every now and then I would have decreased strength on my hands in the morning. So much so I could not open the cap on the toothpaste. My mom thought I was joking or imagining things, so nobody really looked into it. The strength would come back to my regular level after some time, but I never knew why it had happened in the first place. I’m convinced now it has something to do with my autism.

I did 5 years of piano as an extra curricular activity at prep school . I was so bad at it I never even took the grade 1 exam. My drawing ability is around an average 6-7 year old level.

At school I was usually the last one picked for a team at sports . I've never been a strong person .

I was diagnosed with dyspraxia as part of my assessment screened for any other conditions I could have. While I am traditionally clumsy I have problems with many of the things the people above have said they do not. I would never be able to play an instrument and having to learn both the recorder and violin in my primary education was horrific. I was awful at them. I also tend to randomly drop things and walk into things/people.

It's so important things like this are picked up on because they often have other symptoms alongside the clumsiness that can cause problems. I also wonder how many of our health problems are caused by stress because every health issue I've had in the recent years, including an autoimmune disorder were all linked to stress. If the ND movement made things less stressful (ie. less need to mask, more understanding of sensory needs etc.) I wonder what else would be affected because I do think some parts of autism can be beneficial.

I have always walked erratically, struggled to run because my feet feel too far away, struggled to catch balls, had dreadful writing, poor typing skills etc etc always last to be chosen for sports etc etc not enough to be considered a disability but not normal either.

My eldest son didn't walk until he was nearly three and only then with lots of physio. He has never been able to run or climb or use a pen or a fork or do anything requiring fine motor control. He had a physical therapist who was absolutely determined to teach him to ride a tricycle and dedicated loads of time to it but he didn't even get close to achieving it. He also has seizures, a diagnosed movement disorder and severe learning difficulties. MS who is the least autistic of us all walked at 9 months and is good at sport, particularly skating, and had no trouble with riding a bike.YS, who has aspergers like I do with a high IQ, has hyperflexible joints and has a hard time even walking and is really slow and extremely clumsy, much worse than me, he never managed to ride a bike, couldn't catch, and still can't write properly although he can type a mile a minute. I am really worried for him about the future as I am afraid he could lose the mobility he has.

So I am not at all surprised by this.