A response to an article about Dyspraxia in Adults

See here: - https://patient.info/news-and-features/why-are-there-so-many-misconceptions-about-dyspraxia

I was born in nineteen-forty-eight.

I first suspected I may have developmental (rather than acquired) dyspraxia, now usually academically termed developmental coordination disorder in nineteen-ninety-nine and had that confirmed to my satisfaction in two-thousand-and-two when I was fifty-three years old. My assessment was carried out at my expense by a chartered psychologist, and member of The British Psychological Society, who was an experienced clinician with a special interest in occupational and educational psychology with adults.

I hold a Diploma in Social Work awarded in nineteen-seventy-five by the University of Liverpool at the end of a two year full-time academic and practical professional training course which qualified me to work as either a local authority social worker or probation officer for a United Kingdom public authority. I retired as a probation officer in two-thousand-and-three after a full-time career.

This is a helpful article because it is by a writer in stable and responsible employment who also discovered the condition once they became a mature adult.

Yet in quoting from another person's experience of dyspraxia it is particularly disappointing as again the first symptoms regarding a diagnosis are characteristics observable to an onlooker.

I do not minimise the importance of impaired motor skills or motor difficulties that affect a person's ability to carry out everyday activities. However, such “motor” difficulties are certainly not the most pertinent factors that I feel and experience, neither are they what have been reported to me by the many hundreds of adult dyspraxics that I have met and also engaged with via social media over twenty years.

It is also very unlikely that a GP, will personally diagnose such a condition. In my case my GP refused to diagnose in two-thousand-and-two notwithstanding a clinical psychologist’s detailed report supported by extensive test results. After repeated requests, I was sent off to see a consultant neurologist who refused to diagnose, telling me I could not have dyspraxia because I found my way unaided to his office – (about twelve miles from home) despite me being fifty years of age and having navigated myself about the whole country for at least thirty years. I could give more details but it will not achieve anything here.

The things that affect me most are the difficulties that come about consequent on a poor working memory – for example, constantly forgetting where I have put something down, or discovering where an item of mine is and accusing another person of moving it there without telling me. I do not do this now I understand more about my condition.

I recall seeming to be understood by a former GP – when I said – it feels as if my head is full of spaghetti with all the ends swirling around, trying to match up with another spaghetti end but not quite making it. There is simply more going on in my brain at anytime than I can easily process and also I spill my dinner most days.

When any practitioner first encounters a person who is having more difficulty managing tasks than seems logical, for a person with their level of intelligence and achievement, I suggest start by getting them to talk about how it feels – for example - to lock your keys in your car yet again and have to call a breakdown service out – something I have done several times, before I compensated by always carrying a spare car key.

If practitioners start from how it feels to repeatedly do things that seem ridiculous, and accept what is said, rather than, as most do say something like – everyone does that – which will probably be true – but they will not go into a room a dozen times in a day and forget what they wanted – pick something else up return to whence they came & then try to work out what to do next. That is dyspraxia as far as I am concerned.

Inch by inch others seem to be better at realising that, but it is very slow progress as indicated by the article by Ashwin Bhandari. He seems to have relied two heavily on the opinions of a trustee of the Dyspraxia Foundation, when we might have learned more if he had told us of his experiences. I continue to be a member of the Dyspraxia Foundation which I first joined in nineteen-ninety-nine.

I was eventually diagnosed by an NHS Psychiatrist, who I obtained a referral to see in an effort to receive an onward referral to an NHS psychologist. I never was able to see an NHS psychologist and have those test scores reviewed twelve years later, but at least my GP now accepts that I do actually have developmental dyspraxia.

No services have ever been offered, and sixteen years on from early retirement, without a clear daily routine I continue to live a life of muddle and frustration, but at least with an occupational pension, I am far better off than many others as they struggle to get permanent work or welfare benefits to enable a minimal existence.

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