Dyspraxia is not something you just grow out of.
You may have figured out how to manage. You likely have made career choices to work around your challenges. Doesn’t everyone?
But then there’s day to day life. The slips and the spills, the constant need to keep track of things missed or forgotten. And people don’t understand that just because you did something once, it doesn’t mean you necessarily can do it again. It doesn’t seem to matter how good you are at your job: the challenges in organization and planning, and even just the accidents, are always stressful. The need for support with some activities that seem easy to others draws criticism, even if you may be helping them with ideas they can’t grasp.
This can result in constant social and emotional challenges.
It may take you, as a dyspraxic, longer to automatise all kinds of skills…
…from the simple movements of stacking shelves, to writing, typing and driving and the processes needed to adhere to policies and procedures consistently.
Because as a person with dyspraxia you have to think about so many things that are automatic for others, you may feel you have less brain power left to spend on creative contributions.
Your challenges with motor planning may seem to translate to all kinds of planning. Calendars, charts, lists and alarms help, but you might still have this feeling of drowning…
For people with dypraxia, there are specific secrets to succeeding in education, at work… and in life
Automaticity tends to improve if you identify and address the underlying challenges that have been preventing you from being more coordinated:
- Muscle tone, the readiness of a muscle to move – which impacts your posture, your ability to maintain your stamina and balance and even your pencil grasp
- The sense of where the body is in relation to itself and the changing environment (proprioception): In our experience this can have a lot to do with organization and planning, and even math skills (like managing your budget).
- There are other systems, of course. Which ones are involved and to what extent would vary from one person to another. Addressing the problem ones may, if nothing else, minimize the accidents and bruises.
- If instead of learning just any physical movement you learn and repeat movements that help to support and organize the body-brain connection, you may find that life can get easier.
And here’s an altogether other aspect of dyspraxia that can be addressed: Getting your ideas heard and recognised. Often dyspraxics have strong intuitive thinking, they just know the answer, but cannot easily explain how and why they got to it. Sometimes others pick up on your suggestion and present it as their own (and get all the credit). Sometimes you get accused of guessing or cheating. Sometimes people just don’t listen, focusing on what you can’t do instead.
So yes, if you learn not just strategies for coping but ways to explain your intuitions to those who process thoughts differently, you can expect to be heard and understood.
One more specific secret to succeeding: It’s not too late. Come talk to us.
