What is Dyspraxia?!

So the big question is what is Dyspraxia?

Dyspraxia is scientifically known as a developmental coordination disorder; DCD for short. It is a common life long condition that affects a persons fine and/or gross motor skills. This means that a child and/or an adult might struggle with walking or talking. Children with Dyspraxia are stereotypically known to be "clumsy" this is because their motor skills are affected in every day use. 

Now if you're anything like me, you did not or do not know the difference between fine and gross motor skills. 

 Fine motor skills = small movements. This would be things such as picking up objects and other small activities which used fingers or toes. 

Gross motor skills = Larger movements. Such as being able to roll around, running etc and struggling with using bigger muscles like arms, torso and legs. 

Dyspraxia doesn't only just affect a persons physically coordination but  can also affect a persons mental coordination. What I mean by this is that a person might be able to run or climb, but the might struggle getting information passed from their brain to certain parts of their bodies, For example a person might struggle to get what they are thinking in their mind and put it down on paper or even struggle to get the words out of their mouth. This is one of the main things I personally have struggled with and still do. 

The amount of times I have thought of a sentence in my mind, i go to write it down and completely miss certain words, or add extra lettings.  Sometimes I have personally noticed my mistakes, other times it has to be pointed out to me because according to my brain that sentence is correct. An example for this is in my mind i would be thinking "I would like to go to the beach tomorrow" where as I could write it down as "i woud like to go beach tomorrow" or speak it as "I like go to beach" which to me would look and sound like i said the first sentence but actually it comes out like a cryptic message!

It is important to know that Dyspraxia can vary from person to person and can also change in time depending on different experiences and environments. 

The older some people get they might find that their Dyspraxia gets a lot better and don't notice is so much, where as some people might find that they struggle more than they used it. 

Even though Dyspraxia is now a common learning difficulty/disability it still isn't really spoken about or got the press of difficulties such as Dyslexia even though they are quite similar in their own ways.   

There are many different symptoms that a person can experience from Dyspraxia and it is also another thing that can change depending on a persons age and experiences etc.  

If you believe that you yourself or know someone that might sound like they have Dyspraxia I will link the Dyspraxia Foundation website so you can see all the different signs and symptoms of dyspraxia and also how to get help if you need it. 

https://www.dyspraxiafoundation.org.uk/about-dyspraxia/

I will be doing a three part series of "my dyspraxia story" which one will be my childhood, the second will be teenage years and first will be young adult life. This will be about my personal experience with dyspraxia, getting diagnosed, school life and social/emotional life. 

I apologise if my spelling, punctuation and grammar are not perfect; I have dyspraxia after all :P