Motor coordination difficulties and autism

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Hi there!

As I continue to explore the possibility of being autistic, I came across dyspraxia.

Dyspraxia is not considered an autistic trait, but there seems to be a strong overlap between autism and motor coordination difficulties (ca. 80% of people with ASD also have some motor coordination difficulties to different degrees, although in many cases not extreme to the extent that they'd be diagnosed properly with dyspraxia.

For me, looking back at my life I'm wondering whether I do have that. I don't currently consider myself particularly clumsy; however, I must say that I don't really find myself in many situations at all in which I would put that at the test.

I've always had terrible handwriting. My mother used to force me to do writing practice for hours just to improve it, but it never made a difference. If I take a LOT of time and really concentrate I can make it somewhat more legible, but it never becomes pretty. I've also always been dreadful at any handiwork - DYI stuff goes completely beyond me; and as a child and teenager there were quite a few instances of people calling me clumsy & me being dreadful at sports and all that.

However, on the other hand, I am a hobby musician. Not great, but good enough to enjoy myself - doesn't that fly in the face of the motor coordination difficulties assumption? Or could it just be that I'm making up for it via muscle memory and repetition?

And how about you lot - does anyone else have similar experiences/worries/considerations?

Could you be left handed? Some lefties have terrible handwriting because they were forced to write with their right hand.

No, I'm even worse with my left hand

It's one of the common traits that I cannot relate: stories and accounts around clumsiness.

The only thing that will make me clumsy is either effects of inattention because of an overwhelmed and dysregulated system that robs my working memory and prevents me from processing things properly, or just straight up illness because I kept feeling my own body and it's making me constantly distracted by it.


Never considered myself having dyspraxia.
I don't have a motor learning specifically.

Well, I'm a diagnosed Aspie, and I'm also clumsy in some areas but capable of playing the guitar and piano tolerably well and fairly good at handicrafts and some other endeavours in which a steady hand is important. I think it can at least be partially explained by coping strategies. I used to practice music till the guitar strings made my fingers bleed and my repetition of the same phrases drove my parents up the wall. And I have trouble learning any music that's at all radically different to what I can already play.

I was surprised when I first heard that Aspies are often clumsy, but when I looked into the matter I realised that I'd done a lot to arrange my environment to reduce the risk of accidents (such as tripping over or treading on things, and knocking things over on my workspace), which I'd always put down to a wholesome discipline. My cursive handwriting is lousy, though it improves with careful practice. A lot of my poor performance in sport is down to poor muscle co-ordination. I'm not a good dancer but I've always sensed that I could be if I bothered to work hard at it.

So I think there's something in your idea that repetition and muscle memory can compensate for a lot of ASD-related motor co-ordination difficulties. I never found it much help with sport, but I think other factors came into play there - my family not being sporty types, I had very little help from them, and sport is often very competitive, with the focus on high-flyers and a certain contempt for weak performers - my sports teachers taught me nothing. I guess they felt I was too far behind to ever catch up. So I gave up trying and focussed on what I did best instead.

That's the case with my dad. He was left handed & forced to use his right hand in school. He learned to be ambidextrous & he worked in construction from around the time he & my mom started dating till he retired a couple years ago. His handwriting has always been very messy regardless of which hand he uses but he can do most anything else quite well with either hand.

I take after my dad with the messy handwriting but I'm not left handed. I did learn to do certain things better & more often with my left hand for convenience reasons like picking my nose with my left hand when sitting at my desktop computer so my right hand can stay on my computer mouse to scroll & click links when web browsing. Using my left hand for that has become a habit even when I'm not using my computer. I know it's a gross example but it's the easiest for me to explain.

I have the pencil grip of a left handed person despite being right handed & using my right hand to write. I lack the dexterity to hold a pencil the correct way with just my fingertips. My hand also cramps & hurts after writing for a bit & I've been told it's due to my incorrect pencil grip.

I have other motor-skills problems as well. When I was in elementary & middle-school I missed a class about once a month to work with an occupational therapist to practice motor-skills & balance type stuff. I was still eligible for that service when I started high-school but I would of had to walk to the middle-school next door to receive it & my parents were concerned about me missing two classes every month instead of just the one since walking there would take a little time. I'm not sure what condition was listed in their paperwork & they may have just put something like poor motor-skills without listing a specific condition. None of my medical paperwork listed Dyspraxia.

As for as clumsiness, I probably usually only appear slightly more clumsier than most people but I avoid activities that are more motor-skills dependent like sports & DIY projects.

I do have a tremor disorder that acts up when doing things with fine motor-skills or when anxious, stressed, tired, or sometimes making med changes. Some people develop it when they're older but I've had it since I started high-school. My research says it's unrelated to autism.

The three jobs I've had were cleaning related like dish-washing & custodial stuff but I used gross motor-skills a lot more than fine motor-skills. With dish-washing the machine did most of the actual washing. I'm aLOT slower washing dishes at home by hand than most others would be so I usually procrastinate till we're out of stuff & then it takes a few hours or I spend only a couple hours on it a day for a couple days. Having more space would be help a bit too though like having a bigger sink & a faucet that is higher up from the sink.