Symptoms of Dyspraxia in Adults

There are different types of dyspraxia such as oral, global and physical. Someone with dyspraxia can have one or more of these. I have oral, global and physical dyspraxia. I wanted to write a post that could help other people with dyspraxia and that could help people understand dyspraxia. Dyspraxia affects people in different ways and symptoms can vary. I have listed symptoms which I have researched.

Please note that a person with dyspraxia will not necessarily have all these symptoms. I do not have them all. I might have had more of the symptoms when I was younger, but with the right support and treatment, these symptoms have been reduced. I hope you find this article useful.

What Is Dyspraxia?

Dyspraxia is a developmental disorder of the brain in childhood causing difficulties in activities requiring coordination and movement.

Co-Ordination (Large Movements)

People with dyspraxia have difficulty with co-ordination and can perform poorly in these areas:

• Balance
• Posture
• Integration of both sides of the body
• Hand-eye co-ordination
• Rhythm when dancing or doing aerobics
• Gait
• Movement
• Accessory movements – can be exaggerated. Flapping arms when running, for example.

Co-Ordination (Small Movements)

People with dyspraxia may experience difficulties in these areas:

• Two-handed tasks
• Manipulative skills – such as drawing or steering.
• Adequate grasp – poor grip on pens or pencils.
• Dressing or grooming activities
• Established hand dominance

Speech and Language

People with dyspraxia can also have difficulties with speech and language. Here are some signs of these difficulties:

• Talking continuously
• Repeating things
• Trouble organising content or sequence of language
• Unclear speech
• Cannot pronounce certain words
• Uncontrolled pitch, volume or rate in speech

Eye movement

• Difficulty in tracking or relocating things.

Perception

People who suffer from dyspraxia may have difficulties in the following areas:

• Visual perception
• Over sensitivity to light or noise
• Distinguishing sounds from background noise
• Over-sensitive or under-sensitive to touch, smell, taste, temperature or pain.
• Spatial awareness. Can lead to bumping or tripping into/over things and people. Could also lead to dropping things.
• Sense of time, speed, distance or weight
• Direction
• Distinguishing left from right

Learning and Thought Process

Dyspraxia can affect someone’s learning. These are the difficulties someone with dyspraxia may experience:

• Planning or organising thought
• Memory, particularly short term
• Focusing
• Sequencing – could affect maths, reading, spelling or writing.
• Accuracy – can lead to difficulties copying writing or movements
• Following instructions, especially more than one instruction at a time.
• Concentration
• Slow in finishing tasks

Emotion and Behaviour

Dyspraxia can have an impact on emotion and behaviour. Someone with dyspraxia may have difficulty with the following things:

• Listening to people, particularly in large groups.
• Picking up non-verbal signs
• Judging tone or pitch of voices (possibly including theirs)
• Adapting to new or unpredictable situations. Can be slow to adapt.

My Experience of Having Dyspraxia

I have had a few challenges with having dyspraxia. Notably, the hardest challenges were when I was little and in my teens. Teens were the toughest. Some people thought I was thick because I was slower to understand things. In the first two years of high school, I was always last to be picked for P.E or second last. I started to fit in in year nine, I met two great friends who are still my best friends now. I had to work on my social skills a lot. But for all these challenges I would say that I am proud of what I have achieved. I think I am a stronger and more understanding person because of it.

When I was little not many people could understand my speech but now most people understand me. I can pronounce a lot more words, the only sounds I have trouble with are ‘ch’ and ‘l’.

I never used to like exercise. Apparently, in primary school, I was always half way down the field in a race whilst everyone else had finished. But now I am a lot fitter. I run three times a week. I sometimes go to running club and always go to Parkrun. And I do a run at home on my own. It makes me happy. I don’t worry about the pace much. Whilst I am not the fastest runner in the world, I was a lot better than when I was much younger and that is the main thing.

I used to be awful at eye contact and would look in other directions when someone else was talking to me. Now I am good at eye contact and find it very helpful and beautiful to see the emotions in people’s eyes.

I have just completed a BA degree in English and am going to study an MA in Creative Writing soon. So, everyone who said I was thick, I have proved wrong.

I am learning to drive in an automatic which is giving me more confidence and my instructor teaches a lot of people with dyspraxia. I find it has been rewarding.

The advice I would give to someone with dyspraxia would be to not let any labels define you. Put it this way: Dyspraxia is part of me but I am not dyspraxia. Do not let it hold you back. You may take longer sometimes to get things but it is very rewarding in the end.