Community

I've been spending the past couple of weeks exploring the online dyspraxia communities. There's a lot of good advice and information out there it seems, and I'm now also finding resources in the off-line world, as the DANDA (Dyspraxia, Asperger's Syndrome, AD(H)D) network arranges meetings and events for members.

Unfortunately a couple of the forums seem to go down last night with a 'bandwidth exceeded' error. Perhaps a victim of their own popularity. I hope they're back up soon, as I've been spending a lot of time reading past threads and discovering the experiences of others, and I think I'd be a bit lost without them!

One thing that has become clear is that although each person's dyspraxia is a little different, and may in some cases be combined with other disorders, the problems and experiences faced by most posters has been broadly similar. As a result when one person declares having a problem, there's a friendly response by a number of others on the forums as to how this problem maybe overcome.

I've still got a lot to learn. I'm beginning to understand the broad effects of dyspraxia. However there's also an interesting cross-over into other areas such as Asperger's Syndrome and other Autism Spectrum Disorders, where some significant degree of overlap can exist.

It's something of a whole new world, and it's proving a very interesting learning process.

Forgotten moments

This is the first installment of a series of blog-posts into some of the common effects of dyspraxia, although as you'll read, I've led most of my life assuming many of these were perfectly normal. We start off with short-term memory.

Lots of people may say they have a bad memory, and it was largely due to this that I didn't pay much attention to my own memory failings until I recently read about the nature of dyspraxic short term memory (or the lack of one) that struck a chord with me. Many people have absent-minded moments, but it was when I began to think about one of my average days that I realised my short-term memory wasn't average.

This evening for example I decided to do some laundry. I set the washing machine going, and only remembered that I needed to empty the machine and put my clothes in the dryer some hours later when my flatmate got back, who'd be wanting dinner, which made me remember the washing up I'd left to soak earlier and also forgotten. (Both are in the kitchen, so remembering one triggered off remembering the other). I was making some headway to go bed just now when I went into the kichen to turn the light off, and realised that I'd completely forgotten about the clothes in the dryer.

At work I can have even more accute moments of short-term memory lapse, where I can take a caller's name, put them on hold, and instantaneously forget who they are. I then wrack my brain before the person who I need to transfer the call to becomes available. Frustrating doesn't even come close.

Yet, the fact that I've not paid much attention to my memory in the past, goes to show that I've learned to live with it. I think I default to a style of searching each cupboard or shelf for an item, that I've now become obviously accustomed to, as opposed to instinctively know where I've put something. Although at work I have got into the habit or writing down most notes of any importance, it's not something I do at home, or in other parts of life, and I seem to manage my way through ok. Perhaps not as efficiently as could be, but I've yet to have any disasters caused by forgetting something crucial.

Curiously though, I seem to have an oddly sharp long-term memory for all manner for things, from song lyrics to small details of children's TV programmes I used to watch twenty years ago. The human brain is an odd thing.

(P.S. I'm writing this post now, at near midnight, as I might otherwise forget if I leave it till tomorrow!)

Forums

Having done a search on google for dyspraxia, the first thing I've noticed is that the top websites are largely aimed at parents looking after children with the condition. However for older dyspraxics, in their teenage years or adulthood who are looking for self-help, assistance is also at hand. I've added a number of links to useful websites I've discovered to the right-hand side of this blog page.

A good starting point are the forums, as there's the opportunity to read about the experiences of fellow dyspraxics, and certainly from my point of view, it's this that provides some of the greatest revalations as to what elements of you as a person are affected by dyspraxia. There are two (largely UK based) forums that I've come across thus far. Firstly, the Dyspraxic Teens forum, the members of which were used as compelling source material for Caged in Chaos, so I believe. There's also an adults discussion forum on yahoo groups, which although moderated (no bad thing in my opinion) is very active.

I'm still testing the water of the online dyspraxic community, but so far the results have been promising. I'll add more links and review more sites as I find them.

Bodge it like Blair

In some ways it was rather heartening to see Tony Blair make a right pig's ear of kicking a football towards a goal yesterday, and to see the ball head off at 90 degrees to the intended trajectory, missing the goal mouth by a mile. I suspect any dyspraxic has endured many similar situations during a grueling schooling of enforced PE lessons. Although whether any of us would have got anywhere near a goal is another matter.

It made me think how many politicians could be dyspraxics. In some ways politics and the civil service seem like a fairly safe career path for dyspraxic, as aside from some public speaking and an element of confrontation at the upper levels of parliament, there's not a great deal in the job description that would too sorely test the areas of dyspraxic vulnerability.

Boris Johnson seems like the obvious candidate for a dyspraxic of course, seeming uncertain in both movement and thought, if his appearances on Have I got news for you are anything to go by. It's difficult to know to what extent this is an element of show, but he does come over as the stereotypical dyspraxic's politician, if ever there was one. That said, Caged in Chaos reveals that rather more notable figures from the history books are thought to have been dyspraxic, Winston Churchill and Albert Einstein amongst their number. There's no reason then to limit our sights to the obviously characters, when such distinguished alumni prove that anything can be achieved ...but give becoming a professional footballer a miss.

Space...the final frontier

I had a fairly dyspraxia laden morning at work. I managed to successfully spill my juice twice, once right over a load of paperwork. (A bit of Robinsons helps drown out the sometimes plasticy taste of the water-cooler's contents, although fortunately any no added sugar orange staining on the office notes was avoided.) I also managed to thwack by elbow on a table corner, and at some point or other deposit much of the stationary resident on my desk across the floor.

Modern, spacious living and working environments would be great for the spatially unaware of us, but for many offices it's a matter of cramming in as much as possible, and my flat is certainly no better. In fact, the size of my flat, combined with my inability to keep anywhere tidy for very long leads to inevitable cascades of collapsing books, magazines, CDs, or anything else that can be poorly stacked and all too easy knocked asunder into a great chaos.

Perhaps when I'm in a somewhat more permanent situation I'll buy myself a place and fill it with all manner of storage devices, allowing me to divide up the infinitely numerous bits and pieces I'm forever in need of into tidy yet accessible locations. It's either that or a case of venturing to the opposite extreme of managing with very little. In some ways that's the advantage of going backpacking, which is something I've done on a number of occasions in recent years. You can only take along what you can physically carry. Although I'll still end up with reams of city maps and tourist bumph, after a few days in each place I'm still forced to pack up every belonging I've brought along into a modest bag and set off again. It's not a bad way of enforcing a little organisation for a while at least.

Awareness

Through reading Caged in Chaos (I'm about a quarter of the way through at present), it's really brought home to me the benefits of being aware of Dyspraxia and what it entails at an early age. I can't recall when I was told about my diagnosis. If I was told during my school years I certainly didn't understand exactly what parts of my often awkward life were due to Dyspraxia and what weren't. Dyspraxia is something I've only really been getting to grips with recently, now I'm in my 20s.

As far as I know my Secondary School teachers weren't aware of my Dyspraxia. If they were, they certainly didn't appear to take into account any of the limitation or differences that Dyspraxia does inflict. PE classes, as with so many Dypraxics were a weekly dose of hell and torment. I couldn't lob a javalin more than about 3 feet in front of me. If I was able to throw, kick or hit anything capably, it was more out of sheer chance than any co-ordinated attempt. There's a great frustration in trying repeatly to achieve something in sports, but no matter how many times you practice, you just don't have the control to consistently pull it off.

Reading about other Dyspraxics' experiences at school is also making me realise - now - some 8 years after leaving school, that many of what I'd look back upon as my introvertedness, idiosyncracies or shortfalls are actually very typical Dyspraxic traits. In particular, being given instructions on how to complete some task or assignment, and being unable to fathom exactly what's needed. I can recall on numerous occasions asking the person I was sat next to what we need to do, or how the teacher wanted it doing. I thought it was it due to me not paying enough attention, or being daft, but now I realise it wasn't something peculiar to me, but part of that strange world of Dyspraxia. It's a learning process, and page by page I'm learning, albeit rather belatedly.

Dyspraxia Blog

It's not too common to hear something that truly inspires, but today was one of those rare occasions. BBC Radio 4's You and Yours programme featured Victoria Biggs, the talented young author of a book entitled Caged in Chaos, on her experiences living and dealing with dyspraxia.

Why is this so important to me? Well let me explain...

I'm in my twenties, and although I was diagnosed at Primary School as being dyspraxic (or having Clumsy Child Syndrome as it was inaccurately then called) I've been wholly unaware of the fact until quite recently. I'd realised that I never fitted it with my peer group, and with this new 'dyspraxia' word revealed to me, I decided it was about time to find out more. I've occasionally looked online for some explanation, but Caged in Chaos sounds as if it might be just what I need to get to grips with this little known aspect of myself. The book apparently approches dyspraxia from the teenager's perspective which makes perfect sense, as this has to be the most of trying of times, when much is expected of you, with image and social skills playing a crucial part to the integration within your peer group. As an adult you come to learn to live with the peculiarities and limitations of Dyspraxia the best you can, having learnt to avoid the pit-falls of certain activities.

I've been planning to start a blog about dyspraxia for a while, and feeling rather enthused by this whole experience, and the media coverage however fleetingly that dyspraxia had received, I've decided at last to put virtual pen to virtual paper. In many ways I hope this blog will follow my own exploration of dyspraxia, and who knows maybe others will relate to the some of the experience I'll share.