Dyspraxia

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I think I might have dyspraxia, which is linked to autism spectrum disorders as well as dysgraphia and dyscalculia. Dyspraxia can include difficulty with planning a sequence of coordinated movements and difficulty with executing a plan, even though it is known.

Then again, I might not have dyspraxia because I do not have a doctor's diagnosis. But I find some signs in my own life:

- I have always had an athletic build, though I am shorter than average. I was never sickly, so I was in good shape to play sports in my childhood and I did. Though I played sports until 9th grade (ending with basketball), I never seemed to reach the level my brother or sister, much younger than I, have. My brother, who is 11, was invited at age 10 to join a traveling professional basketball team because of his great ball handling skills. My sister was the best on the school volleyball team before she took up band. To them, phrases like "you're the best" or "you did a great job" from my parents aren't just platitudes (like they were with me.) At 20, I still have difficulty shooting a basket, throwing a ball, and hitting a baseball. I used to have problems catching objects, but after seeing people toss football at school I practiced for hours in my room throwing up and then catching a football so that it no longer became a problem when someone wanted to get me into a game; however, this skill I believe just 'clicked' one day more than it appeared as a result of my practice--some dyspraxics get better over time.

- Last year some friends invited me to dance in a contradance. That is like a squaredance. I was somewhat excited as I had never tried dancing before and thought it might be my ticket to 'cool' (and to meeting women.) My friends, who had already gone to several sessions, got there early, so I was able to attend the training session for newcomers. I ended up not being able to remember the moves, and messed up several times and tried my best to blend in. It was worse than dancing with one other person because it was like a chain where each person was a link and I was the broken link breaking the whole chain.

- At home, I am the clumsy one. (The klutz, you might say.) My brother who, as I already mentioned, is 11 and my sister, who is 14, are allowed to bring food outside of the kitchen, but I am not, and I am 20, as I already mentioned. I spill things everywhere and caused my parents to have to spend hundreds of dollars to re-carpet a room after I knocked over a coffee mug, so maybe it is in their best interest. But I do hope they will give me another chance to prove that I can be more careful (such as with closed containers), and feel they have not given me enough such chances so far.

- Poor handwriting.

- Trouble in high school geometry class. Also, "tendency to reverse and mistype numbers, signs or decimal points, frequent and apparently careless mistakes, particular difficulty with geometry - both drawing and using equipment such as a compass or protractor and difficulty with spatial awareness e.g. drawing shapes, graphs, tables, etc." ( http://www.scips.worc.ac.uk/disabilities/dyspraxia.html )

Since Dyspraxia is linked to autism, I am posting the following link for more information about it:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dyspraxia

I definitely don't have dyspraxia. I have excellent hand-writing and my hand-eye coordination is just fine. I'm not good at sports, though, and both my parents are unfortunately jocks.

Motor Dyspraxia is a good fit for many of us.

I myself have many bad memories of things that happened. My handwriting today is horrible. I grip anything that writes with a death grip and I get a sore hand. I use to get yelled at constantly by my teachers as a result. I could never write well enough to please anyone. Thankfully college professors are more tolerant of bad handwriting.

Sports? HA! Catching is something that I've never really gotten the hang of. Throwing is something I couldn't do until I was about 11 or so. Kicking? One time I was allowed to punt the football at recess out of niceness of my other peers. I kicked the ball straight up and over my head for a negative yard punt.

Thank you!! That link was really helpful. I am loaded with this, apparently. Interesting that it can even affect our attention spans, making it look like ADHD. Very helpful info. Thanks again!

I have mild dyspraxic symptoms. I sometimes find it hard to plan how I'm going to make a series of movements, which is one of the reasons I've never liked sports. On an almost daily basis, I at some point find myself walking down a hall in the opposite direction of someone else, and when we get up to each other, neither one of us can decide which to let the other pass first on which side, and we both end up shuffling around and bumping into each other! Neurotypicals that I find myself repeatedly getting into such tangles with get very annoyed with me. But my handwriting is wonderful, as I am an artist. That took a lot of practice.

90-95% of autistics have dyspraxic tendencies, around 20-60% actaually have dyspraxia, i am one of them

yeah i might have tendancies... i have always said my middle name is definitely NOT "Grace"...

i'm a clutz but i think that doing martial arts growing up probably helped a lot...

like, i trip all the time... can't seem to walk properly but i never fall cause i always catch myself and usually avoid flat out spills.

i find i often hit corners of things as i am making a turn... my hip/hanch gets bruised sometimes because of that kind of crap

i have terrible handwriting.... that is ALWAYS a comment on my teaching evals from every semester i've ever TAed...

I'd say I have very mild dyspraxia. My mother told me I outgrew it. Can you outgrow it?

I still drop things and I bump into things, I have gotten many bruises from work because I tend to bang my arms or legs against the washer doors or the dryers and against the table top where we fold linen. That only happen when I be wroking fast and hard. I get very clumsy when I try to go fast but it doesn't stop me from working.


My dad is clumsy too so I wonder if he could be dyspraxic too. He does get left and right mixed up all the time and I remember reading that one of the symptoms of dyspraxia was problems knowing left and right. He gets very clumsy and my mother sometimes yells at him for rude behavior for not apologizing for bumping into her or walking in front of her cutting her off.

After reading wikipedia about speech and language, was that why i stutter and had troubles getitng words out of my mouth when i was little? I had to learn how to take breaths between each sentances and before I said another word. I remember the problem starting right after my 7th birthday and it continued through my preteen years but it got less and less.