People with dyspraxia can have difficulty with movement and memory, such as fine and gross motor skills needed for driving and following directions, cooking, and speaking, so patience is the number one trait their partners need to have.
It can affect your co-ordination skills – such as tasks requiring balance, playing sports or learning to drive a car. Dyspraxia can also affect your fine motor skills, such as writing or using small objects.
Emotions as a result of difficulties experienced:
Tend to get stressed, depressed and anxious easily. May have difficulty sleeping. Prone to low self-esteem, emotional outbursts, phobias, fears, obsessions, compulsions and addictive behaviour.
They may easily become overwhelmed in group settings. This can create problems with making friends, and kids can become anxious about socializing with others, especially as they get older. Their difficulties with sports may also affect their self-esteem and social abilities.
Speech difficulties can interfere with casual conversation, which can result in social awkwardness and an unwillingness to risk engaging in conversation. Writing difficulties such as poor letter formation, pencil grip and slow writing can make school work frustrating.
Interestingly, in the general population, dyspraxia was associated with significantly higher autistic traits and lower empathy. These results suggest that motor coordination skills are important for effective social skills and empathy.
There is increasing evidence of associated anxiety, depression, behavioural disorders and low self-esteem in children, teenagers and young adults with dyspraxia/DCD: • Children with DCD exhibit more aggressive behaviour that age-matched controls (Chen et al 2009).
Social and sensory – individuals with dyspraxia may be extremely sensitive to taste, light, touch, and/or noise. There may also be a lack of awareness of potential dangers. Many experience moods swings and display erratic behavior.
Dyspraxia can effect fine motor skills such as using cutlery and scissors, being able to brush hair and do things most women take for granted, such as applying makeup and painting nails. All the fiddly things in life. Our lack of motor skills can mean we are often mucky pups and quite messy.
Why it's hard: Dyspraxia can affect skills that are important for finding and keeping a job. These might include the ability to organize, drive and type. Some people with dyspraxia have a hard time speaking clearly, which may create extra challenges.
Developmental co-ordination disorder (DCD), also known as dyspraxia, is a condition affecting physical co-ordination. It causes a child to perform less well than expected in daily activities for their age, and appear to move clumsily.
Adults with dyspraxia often describe greater challenges with anxiety and fatigue. This talk will address these issues and provide practical strategies and tips that can enhance the well-being of adults with dyspraxia.
Fundamentally, autism is a disorder that affects socialization and communication, while dyspraxia affects motor skills and physical coordination. While coinciding symptoms aren't uncommon, the two are considered distinct disorders.
Learning Disabilities and Dyspraxia
Individuals with this condition have trouble planning and organising their thoughts. They are often unable to understand logic or reason. Many of the learning disabilities that children with dyspraxia face are linked with embarrassment related to their physical disability.
Coordination difficulties are the main feature of dyspraxia/DCD, affecting large (gross motor) and small (fine motor) body movements. Children with dyspraxia/DCD can also experience difficulties with organisation, planning, attention, memory and processing speed. Some have difficulties with speech and language.
Sometimes children with dyspraxia are fidgety and restless; they are not comfortable on an ordinary chair. They may appear untidy and not aware of personal hygiene.
Adults with dyspraxia may be more likely to experience depression and anxiety. They may also be prone to low self-esteem, obsessions, phobias and addictive behaviour.
While ADHD is a learning difficulty that often affects attention, behavior or both, dyspraxia has to do with fine motor skills, language and planning abilities and is not always classed as a learning difficulty.
The praxis system is made up of a series of functions associated with particular areas of the brain including the frontal and parietal cortex, basal ganglia, and white matter tracts between these areas. These areas work together to produce the desired purposeful movement in order to perform the required action.
While they do not get worse over time, their challenges may become more apparent with increasing academic demands. They have to work harder and/or differently than their peers to achieve the same goals. Despite their difficulties, pupils with dyspraxia can and do learn to perform some motor tasks quite well.
Tiredness and fatigue are overwhelming for many adults who have dyspraxia due to the effort it takes in planning, prioritising, processing and performing everyday tasks whilst trying not to get distracted. Please consider this, remembering how you feel when tired before you make your next tutting noise.
Many people with dyspraxia/DCD have difficulty organising themselves, their equipment and their thoughts. Some also experience problems with attention, memory and time management.
As dyspraxia is an umbrella term, not everyone will experience the same difficulties. It can also occur with other Specific Learning Difficulties (SpLDs), such as dyslexia. If dyspraxia is not identified until adulthood it can affect confidence.