Poor motor skills as an adult?

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My motor skills were delayed, as a kid I walked late and had trouble with things like tying my shoes and handwriting.

I love watching dance, like ballet, and wish I could move my body that fluidly. I have taken dance classes but I am hopelessly awkward. I have trouble with sequences of movements. I can't pick up choreography.

One of my biggest issues is that I have problems going down stairs. Going up them is not as hard, but I have a lot of problems coordinating the movements needed to go down stairs safely. I have to go slowly and very carefully. I have fallen, sprained ankles, bruised. It's almost like a visual thing, I have trouble judging the distance from one step to the next and don't put my feet in the right place. I can't feel how much distance there is.

I have trouble telling where my body is in space. I bump into things, trip over things.

Does anyone else have problems like this? Is this related to autism? Is there a name for these kinds of problems? Is there anything that might help? I feel like it's not something that will get better with practice - it's not like I'm out of practice with stairs. There are stairs everywhere. I live on the second floor.

I have broken my toes around 4 times now, because of the same thing...not being a good judge of the space around me. I've only fallen down the stairs once, but it is a fear of mine because it requires a bit more concentration than going up.

I had similar diffucilties in early childhood. I refused to move on from velcro shoes to laces (and asked why i had to, and didn't get a very satisfactory logical answer!), and would spend entire days with my laces undone because i couldn't tie them and didn't ask any one to help.

My handwriting was rubbish in spite of massive effort, which used to infuriate my teacher who called me lazy (which in turn upset me). It was a very traditional school with old teachers, and if you didn't progress as expected then you just needed to work harder. It's lucky i wasn't also left handed!

But for some reason i always had a passion for movement. I would practice tumbling and climbing until dragged back into the house for food or sleep. When i was a teenager i would practice tricks on my skateboard from the time i returned home until i was forced to go to bed. I would just strive for the crisp sound of a perfect ollie hundreds of times. I never became a great skateboarder, but the few things i could do were incredibly honed!

So in short, i don't think everyone with AS is a clumsy adult. My obsessions took me from being awkward and clumsy to being an adult proficient in parkour (my latest physical obsession of the last few years) and a great driver (cars have always been an obsession of mine, i'm currently an amateur competitive driver).

Neuroplasticity probably lead me to a different adult brain structure to most people, a structure which was focused by my early life AS traits. I love that i have the coordination that i now do (even if my handwriting is still awful). Even if you are still clumsy though, your early obsessions probably crafted your brain to be better at something else.

I don't really have trouble with balance and walking up and down the stairs but my fine motor skills are horrible. I know that poor fine motor skills can be related to autism, dyspraxia. With me it's more like, I'm slow and clumsy at doing things with my hands, I can't swim or ride a bike or skate. I know that you can strengthen your muscles by doing things like tying your shoe laces as fast as you can as practice and squeezing those stress balls. I'm not quite sure about the stairs though, you should ask your doctor if there are any exercises you can try.

To this very day, the ordinary way to tie your shoes remains a mystery to me. I once tried explaining it to someone else. I guess that's why I couldn't tie my shoelaces for so long...

My handwriting started to become legible in fifth grade. It's fascinating, if you look back at it.

I still have problems with my balance from time to time, but it's much better than it used to be. I have become more careful. I used to hurt myself on a daily basis because I'd run into everything.

Sounds like dyspraxia, and quite possibly issues with propioception.

Personally, I use minimalist shoes now (vibram five fingers specifically), and my difficulties walking are drastically reduced, because I can actually feel where my feet are. I still overuse vision compared to other people, but its far better than it used to be.

When I finally did start walking, I walked on my toes constantly, so much that my achilles tendons are too short - the left foot only slightly, and the right foot very much so - I can hardly put my heel down when I'm walking. I wonder if the short achilles tendons make it harder to go down stairs.

(edit: I also have trouble telling left from right... had to correct this post because I'd mixed up left and right)

I don't think it's part of diagnostic criteria for ASD, however it is part of diagnostic criteria for NVLD, nonverbal learning disorder, which I have. NVLD involves basically, your verbal IQ being very high, but your nonverbal, which besides social skills, includes math, visual spatial stuff in general. The reason for it is an inadequacy in your right brain hemisphere, sometimes it's from hypoxia at birth, alot of adults with right brain strokes mimic NVLD symptoms. In my situation, my IQ gap is like 130+ verbal, but only about 80 nonverbal.

I think for me, though, first off as a kid, while I was totally unaware of my NVLD, I was aware I had flaws. It did take me longer to, say, ride a bike, compared to kids in my class. Took me longer to learn all kinds of physical activity. But, I kinda pushed myself to be better athletically as a kid, probably in what would be considered a weird Aspie special interest kinda way. I'd throw a baseball against a wall for hours at a time, kick a football from a stand over a tree, etc, just because I wanted to do better at those kinda things. One good thing about my childhood was, though I was alone outside of school, I was outside a lot. I didn't have video games until like 11 or so years old. So, when I got home from school, I'd be outside alone until dark everyday, playing by myself. That, and my parents did sign me up for sports as a kid, and once I got a bit better, I tried the best I could to play all the sports the other kids at school played at recess and whatnot.

As for how I am now, I'm pretty much better than the average person on the street at balance and whatnot, as I specifically practice/practiced it. However, it is discouraging to see friends who are light years better than you. I have a friend who does like, parkour, I crossed a railroad bridge with him, I was literally scared for my life thinking I'd fall, and he just nonchalantly crossed it like he was walking down the sidewalk, walking over the planks with a foot between them with a 100+ foot drop if he messed up. So in that regard, I still get discouraged.

Now, too, I've taken up figure skating, which obviously for someone in my position, is actually hard. I'm at a disadvantage neurologically. But, I do it anyway and try like hell, and most people consider me a good skater now. However, I still beat on myself sometimes, as for a "normal person" they wouldn't have taken nearly the same amount of time as I did to make the progress I did. Skating's been very good, though, as I feel like it's opened my right brain pathways a bit more, I'm a lot better at identifying emotions and body language in myself and others and stuff like that than I used to be.

I guess in the end, what I'm trying to say is, deficiencies like this CAN be worked through if you persevere, just it's going to take a lot more time. In say, a dance class, it could be hard, as the normal folks will progress a ton faster than you. What I sort of recommend for things like that is, do it independently, and then just review what you're doing with someone else periodically to see if what you're doing is right. You're gonna have to process the information differently than most people, and take more time, but if you persevere, yeah.

When I was growing up I was not good at team sports such as basketball since it requires fast eye and hand coordination. I am a good swimmer and pretty good runner. When I was walk down the stairs I am careful since I am afraid of falling. In the past I tried downhill skiing and did not have real good balance. I am more inclined towards sports for individuals rather than team sports to include swimming and running. I now that in the past when washing dishes after a family dinner someone commented that I seemed slow at it and it may be due to poor motor coordination. When I had a part-time job in college pouring a tray of beverages for long term care residents I was slow and kind of uncoordinated at it. Luckily I was switched to a better job that did not require the fine motor coordination as much

I run into door frames or clip tabletops from time to time. It's like I misjudge where my body should be in relation to the obstacle as I pass it. I sometimes lose my balance when I walk up stairs--I'll take a step up, but I'll have to step back down and regain my balance.

I am clumsy as all get out, and have motor dysgraphia besides. If it wasn't for video games, my fingers likely would not be capable of much of anything. And the rest of my body is almost always covered in bruises from running into things.

I am very clumsy. need to hold on rails and go down one step at a time. slops are very dificult. I fall alot and also my musles start shaking.

Gross motor skills are a failure for me. I can't dance, and I smash my arms and head on furniture, doorframes and even miss the door altogether and hit the wall. I walk into people and trees, and just can't seem to get it right. In fact today, I need to go to the dentist to fix a front tooth I broke out, by smashing a door on my knee, causing me to crash full-force into the edge of the door.

Oddly with the terrible gross motor skills, my fine motor skills are the best anyone could imagine; in fact I worked as an electronics technician in the consumer electronics field for a long time, and one of the things I would do well that few could, was to work on mini-camcorders. I fix jewelry and eye glass frames for friends, and stuff like that too. But the real kicker is that my wife had an operation in which they put a dozen tiny TINY stitches in place, and they were clear nylon, and when she went back to get them out, the doctor couldn't do it! (It was a different doctor from the one who operated, and I'm sure he could have done it fine). But I got every single one of them out for her at home later, and painlessly.

Charles