dyspraxia?

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Being unable to walk and chew gum at the same time.

ruveyn

I have dyspraxia though it seems to be milder than some of you.

It took me years to learn how to tie my shoelaces and I still cannot do that like most people (my father taught me a easiest manner of doing this because he saw I was unable to do otherwise)

I do it almost like the second try on this video and most people are expected to do it the first way.

But I can type, write somewhat properly, draw (even though I tend to put things in the wrong place, I've learned), walk almost properly (I do not feel so often though it happens and I cannot walk in a straight line, I zig zag), I could ride a bicycle though I have not done that in years.

However, I can swin but badly (I won't drown but I cannot learn the swimming movements. I do poorly at sports and cannot dance because I cannot repeat a sequence of movements at all, and when I do something, I usually do it the wrong way. I also had trouble driving especially reverse because I turn on the wrong side, I break a lot of things, couldn't do jumping rope, fall a lot in the stairs (I can almost only crawl on all fours to walk upstairs XD).

And when I look in the mirror, if I have to touch the right side, I tend to touch the left side. But I have learned a lot with the years.

It was worse when I was a kid but my parents did not pay attention to it though their were suspicions, so I got diagnosed at 20. My doctor thinks it's a severe case with coping skills because the areas in which I do poorly are really... bad, but also because of my ASD or ADHD characteristics which, according to some people, can be a sign of dyspraxia.

My best friend has Dyspraxia.
I'm going to the GP about AS within the next month or so, so it might be worth asking about dyspraxia, as I am as Clumsy, if not worse, than my best friend, and I have absolutely no spacial awareness or coordination.
I don't know if I have it, but I do know that it can be right pain in the backside, especially in PE. I was in the Aerobics class at school, and all I did was get my lefts and rights mixed up, and trip over my own feet, when I wasn't bumping into people
All the same, it's just a part of who you are. I wouldn't change who I am for the world.
All the best.

This should probably be in the new other conditions section, but yeah, I have dyspraxia, rarely an issue since I hate doing sports and handwriting things anyway.

Both, since often there is a 'patchy profile' of consistently recurring difficulties. Some motor problems, such as left/right confusion, can even be more 'mental' than physical. Praxis is 'translating an idea into action'.

I've read that one distinction between HFA and Aspergers is that aspies tend to be clumsy, and auties tend to be well-cordinated, but that could be another generalisation that doesn't really hold true.

The way I think of it:
> Dyspraxia / Dyslexia / Dyscalculia diagnostically are stand-alone conditions or co-morbids, if the degree of difficulty is severe enough to interfere with life on a daily basis, especially if OT or other adaptations are available, and especially for children if they can get extra therapy which helps.

> dyspraxia / dyslexia / dyscalculia are also meaningful explanatory terms for a certain character of difficulties, even if the actual difficulties are manifestations of autism; in much the same way that 'Sensory Processing Disorder' provides a very useful definition of something most of us recognise very well.

Dyspraxia certainly matches the odd mix of 'clumsy' that I have, even though I either compensate in some way or just live with the bruises, frustration, occasional comedic moments, and accidental breakages etc. In that respect it's a useful label, which other people recognise means more than 'just clumsy', and there are a number of things which used to embarrass me a great deal, which don't anymore, because I can see the pattern to them. "Limiting motion to the intended part of the body" is a description which really struck a chord with me, since that is something which has often caused other people to make comments (or laugh at me).

In the UK, DANDA (Developmental Adult Neuro-Diversity Association) which originally focused on dyspraxia in adults is now "for people with conditions such as Dyspraxia, ADHD, and Asperger's Syndrome", since the "dys's" crop up in about 10% of people, but are very common in ASD.

This page tries to give a clearer picture of the cross-overs in neurodiversity, there is a good chart and a useful 'problem areas' table to download.
http://www.danda.org.uk/pages/neuro-diversity.php

http://www.danda.org.uk/media/General/N ... iagram.pdf
http://www.danda.org.uk/media/General/T ... 0areas.pdf

Oh, thank you for the links, especially the one with the table.

So, my doctor was right when he sais parts of what seemed to be dyscalculia was caused by dyspraxia. And reading that just makes dyspraxia looks like AS with motor skills problems (and some specialist do "think so" because they won't diagnose anyone who already has dyspraxia with Autism) though I think the overlap in conditions can be misleading and the table may focus on dyspraxia more than on the other disorders.

You're right, that table is focused on contrasting the other conditions to dyspraxia, so there is some information bias.

As to the difference between AS and Dyspraxia. I wouldn't want to lose my aspieness, no matter how socially-skilled I could be - I would no longer be me. But I doubt I would miss the dyspraxic add-ons, such as poor coordination and clumsiness - I think I would still be me, even if I stopped bumping into furniture and walking into walls.

Yes, dyscalculia is 'trouble with maths', but of a specific fundamental nature, perhaps directly related to difficulties with the inherent 'sense of number' which most people have, so that sometimes even basic number recognition and counting cause problems. It can also be connected to a profound anxiety which arises when dealing with number concepts, and an inability to build any confidence in the use of numbers. A simple way of thinking of it : there is a difference in the wiring of the 'number area' of the brain, so dyscalculia doesn't really cover difficulties in other areas.

Being 'bad at maths' isn't dyscalculia, but for some people it could be the reason why. For many others it can be an incompatibility between the way maths is taught, and the way they need to learn. Dyslexia may also cause number/maths difficulties, but these tend to be more to do with mental sequencing and organisation, rather than specifically just about numbers. Generally dyscalculia/dyslexia show as unusual difficulties, which contrast with a person's general level of ability.

That's a good idea.

Is dyspraxia constant and involuntary? I will bump into to things rather regularly, but when I focus on movement I can be very controlled. If I am not thinking about my gait I can trip on air.

The correlation between dyspraxia and ASD might be even higher than the correlation with ADHD, and that's in this section. It's just that dyspraxia (developmental coordination disorder) is not diagnosed in the US as much as ADHD is and I guess most people here are from there.

It's a big bug bear of mine that in the UK the opposite is the case and several developmental conditions other than dyslexia can be misdiagnosed as dyspraxia, instead of ADHD or autism, I suspect to save the time and money that would have to be spent on helping the people with them otherwise. The correlation is very high but I wish they'd diagnose people with everything they have instead of picking the one that they (schools and the NHS) can say they can't do much about for you and pretending (or being misinformed into believing) that if you have dyspraxia then the symptoms of the other things you have don't have to be addressed in the same way.

This is interesting because I was diagnosed when I was young with Dyslexia and Dyspraxia.

I too was delayed in:

Tying my own shoeslaces

Catching a ball

Speech delay

DIfficulty in sports not just playing them but understanding and remembering the rules.

even washing my own hair.

What I don't get though is Dyspraxia is really only about physical impairment with movement. However I have:

some sensory issues (startled by sudden, loud or distant noice, sensitive to lights, difficulty tuning out noise)

Difficulty remembering instructions, information processing delay and undestanding what people say, listening to long conversations are difficulty.

Tendency to take things litterally, I can't always tell when people are joking or being serious.

Not understanding jokes.

Tendecy to be resereved, withdrawn

Obsessional interests (eg videogames, movies)

I feel I am slightly impaired socially in that I can't make friends easily and I don't really know how, especially maintaining them, difficulty forming relationships with women.

As you see this traits are more Aspergers, hmmm I have been told I have Autistic tendencies and Dyspraxia and Aspergers apparently often overlap. If I do have it I am likely on the most able end.

Also from reading a lot about Dyspraxia it seems like many have or share traits with Autism.

It's frustrating, because speech therapists tend to diagnose ONLY dyspraxia, without even looking for autistic crossovers - so I only have a dyspraxia dx.

I wish there was a recognised ASD for autistic dyspraxics - it would be easier for dyspraxics to get a syndrome dX

That's similar for me. Most people would not realise, because I focus on being coordinated, which means that occasionally walking into doorframes, rather than through doorways, and other small fumbles can be laughed off.

But the more I relax, the more obvious it can be. For a small person, I can take up a lot of space when I move around, and bruises from furniture etc are normal. I think it may be a lot harder for some people to control it at all.

One of the big problems for me is that I often find situations where a small task which should only take a few minutes can take a couple of hours because some combination of object/tool/opening/closing/manipulating completely defeats me, and I will end up frustrated because I couldn't make my mind, hands and arms do something easy.

I understand how you feel because I still suspect ASD but I've read many specialists who think that dyspraxia can cause ASD like symptoms even in early childhood (also ADHD).

There are even people who won't agree to test you for autism if you have a diagnosis of dyspraxia.



Kind of the same here, but even with I focus, there are things I cannot do (ie: dancing, gym) and I may fall (especially in stairs) but I think that may be caused by a sudden lack of attention. I think that's just what ladyrain said, and I think it's quite common for people with dyspraxia.

I thought dyspraxia only reffered to fine motor skills and that ataxia was the term for clumsiness...oh. I was going to say that I had a mild case when I was five or so---it was a struggle getting my hand to form the letters, although I knew what the letters were---but now, it only hinders my shoe-tying, buttoning, and just general finger skills. I hate dyspraxia, so....yeah.

I'm not actually new. Just lost my username and password. I have severe dyspraxia and it is definitely not just fine motor. In my case it affects my gross motor much worse than my fine motor.