All of my life I have thought of Dyspraxia as rare. I didn’t know anyone who spoke about it, let alone anyone who was also diagnosed with it. This was until I started a new role where a colleague regularly spoke about their experience of being diagnosed with dyslexia AND dyspraxia.
Listening to their experiences, I had never felt so understood by someone and had never recognised the wide-ranging impact dyspraxia had on my day to day life.
When we both got excited that we finally knew someone else who struggled using keys, we realised we needed to speak more about Dyspraxia and raise awareness of it.
What is dyspraxia?
Dyspraxia is a neurological difference, which affects fine and gross motor coordination. Gross motor skills involve using large muscle movements, such as spacial awareness, walking, or running. And fine motor skills involve use of smaller muscles, such as grasping, object manipulation, or drawing. It is though that dyspraxia is connected to the way the brain develops.
However, because of differences in neural messaging, the brain processes information differently. Therefore, a person with dyspraxia may have difficulties with memory, planning and organising (executive function skills). Dyspraxia is alco commonly associated with difficulties of perception, language and thought. Charities such as Dyspraxia Foundation, Dyspraxia Action and organisations like Dyspraxia UK offer definitions on their websites.
Nevertheless, dyspraxia does not affect a person’s intelligence.
Symptoms of dyspraxia in adults can include:
difficulties with coordination, hand-eye coordination and fine motor skills.
Difficulties with balance.
Impact on posture
Difficulty coordinating both sides of the body.
Tiredness and fatigue.
Difficulties learning new skills.
Difficulties with memory - specifically difficulties remembering information and instructions.
Concentration difficulties.
Difficulties organisation and planning – including difficulties with time management.
Oversensitivity or under sensitivity to light, noise, touch, smell and taste.
Difficulty adapting to new situations or environments.
Difficulties in social situations.
Difficulties picking up small objects
Difficulties writing, colouring or painting
It is thought that dyspraxia affect up to 10% of the population, however some people remain un-diagnosed, so the exact number is unknown. Because i am also dyslexic, i find it personally interesting that Kaplan (1998) found symptoms of dyspraxia in 52% of children already diagnosed with dyslexia.
Therefore, it is unsurprising that people with dyspraxia may also experience similar difficulties to people with dyslexia. For example, compared to neurotypical people, people with dyspraxia experience difficulties in certain academic tasks and with their executive function.
Similar to dyslexia, a lot of the research and literature on Dyspraxia focusses on children. Moreover, a simple Google search maintains the idea that you can grow out of dyspraxia. This lack of understanding and awareness impact us as dyspraxic practitioners, but importantly, it also impacts our understanding of children and family’s needs.
Therefore, it is important that we start discussions about dyspraxia and its impact to ensure children, families and practitioners ALL receive tailored support that meet their needs.
How does dyspraxia impact social work practice and studies?
Social workers and social work students with dyspraxia may encounter specific difficulties. However, they will be experienced on a spectrum and every person’s symptoms will differ from person to person.
For me I thought my symptoms make me who I am, I was characterised by my clumsiness, lack of spatial awareness and ‘artsy’ handwriting. Interestingly, after my diagnosis I read as much as I could on dyspraxia, I found I had experienced a lot of these dyspraxia traits, however, I did not initially perceive them as negatively impacting me.
Specific difficulties may include:
Handwriting that ranges from ‘artistic’ to difficult to read- often meaning you will need to type up your case notes as others cannot read what you have written!
Less inclined to tend to personal presentation (untidy and rumpled appearance)- you may think it’s silly but reminders to iron clothes and tuck things in are always needed in our dyspraxic house.
Lack of spatial awareness- bumping into people, difficulties parking and driving (for a mobile role, parking is a regular challenge). This can make it difficult climbing the stair of unknown buildings and can use considerable energy doing a step-by-step risk assessment of how you’re walking, holding the handrail and making sure you’re not moving too slow for the people behind you.
Increased risk of tripping over things, be it in the office or a family’s home! I am always looking at the floor when I walk, but this causes social problems and always scanning the floor for hazards can use significant energy!!
Difficulties with memory and attention span including ease of distraction- ensure you engage in active listening (ie listenMing for the purpose to listen, not to respond or analyse), and if you find your mind wandering always pull it back as soon as you notice. Have a notebook as your closest companion or use voice notes.
Easily distracted- particularly by noise and lighting- practice meditation to learn the discipline of noticing distraction and letting it go. I have found this very useful. Additionally, communicating that something has caught your eye or ear enables you to centre yourself and give back your full attention.
Slow retrieval of information- I often make sure I am prepared for visits, meetings or discussions. Using some dyslexia M.I.N.D techniques, I will often create colourful and visual notes to help me recall information.
In meetings we may repeat ourselves and find it difficult to pick up on when to speak or when to stop. Some people with dyspraxia have difficulty with organising the content and sequence of their language. If I am feeling nervous or under pressure I often find I have unclear speech and am unable to pronounce some words- I am often tole I mumble and therefore put significant effort into my pronunciation when talking to new people.
Moreover, simple’ considerations like footwear and travel dominate my thoughts before I set out in the morning. Kerry Pace puts this even better, stating ‘When helping others to describe how dyspraxia impacts our lives I find the phrase ‘spaghetti head’ often resonates. As a person who has dyspraxia there is far more energy and time that needs to go into simple logistics to avoid calamity, things that a non-dyspraxic / neurotypical person would do without thinking’.
Check out the next post which provides tips and tricks from dyspraxia self-help groups as well as some of my strategies, which help overcome the challenges of Dyspraxia.
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