Callista wrote:
It's a medical term for clumsiness.
Incidentally, does "dyspraxia" refer to both fine and gross motor skills, or is there another word for not being able to manipulate small objects well?
I don't have dyspraxia, incidentally; though I can't dance or play sports nearly as well as the average person, I can ride a bike and swim well, and I'm not really tripping over my own feet. I would say I'm on the "low end of normal" when it comes to coordination.
AFAIK....I think it can vary. While some with dyspraxia may not be able to manipulate small objects well and that's it, others may have other problems with gross/fine motor skills. Others may be able to manipulate small objects well, but might have problems with motor skills in other ways. IOW...it seems like there's a "spectrum" of sorts when it comes to dyspraxia too and much like alot of other medical conditions, it's manifestations often differ from individual to individual.
I think that in people with ASD's, it MIGHT be related to difficulties in procedural memory and maybe only in certain cases. I've read some studies that suggest procedural memory is often deficient in people with ASD's. As opposed to declarative memory, procedural memory usually, if not always, functions involuntarily or unconsciously. Some researchers believe that people with ASD's who do have problems with procedural memory often compensate with declarative memory. Perhaps this might have something to do with why many with ASD's have a well-developed declarative memory. In the case of ASD people with deficits in procedural memory, it may not be the case that they absolutely cannot do things which require intact procedural memory. Rather....they may have to relay on declarative memory to compensate in able to be able to succeed at such tasks.