My Adventures with Dyspraxia

I was diagnosed with Dyspraxia at the age of 4 in 2002. It all started when I was in private school and I found concentration very difficult. I also struggled with remembering to tie my shoelaces and holding scissors, which a lot of people found quite amusing and entertaining. At first,I tried to fit in, but it became apparent that I could not cope and moved to mainstream education.

In the first instance, I was excited to move to mainstream school but on the flip side, I was sad that I felt I was not good enough to stay at the school. I was also thinking of some questions, such as “Why was this happening?” “Why was it I can not find the most basic tasks difficult?” It all became clear as I missed a lot of reception classes and had to do a variety of different exercises to test my coordination, from physical exercises including bunny hops and mental exercises to memory tests.

When I was told I had Dyspraxia at first I was really upset. I was thinking “What am I going to do?”, “was I going to cope?” and “Was I going to make friends?” As I progressed through the school years I spoke to many teachers and pupils and the biggest thing that helped me through was speaking out and being yourself.

“For example, I played a lot of football with my classmates and despite not being able to dive to my right-hand side very well in goal, I found I was very fearless and just dived at everything, I was even voted star performer in that lesson. Even though I am clumsy in what I say and do, I am always able to make a friend laugh and make their day.

Photo by Eduardo HernandezSoto

In 2018 this for me was the biggest game changer as I had the honour of going to Camp America where I learnt about a variety on the spectrum and how to cope with it. Being a camp counsellor for those three months, and my Dad still says, really taught me that: “if you put your mind to something you can achieve it” It also inspired me to try and explore different avenues to find what I like to get out of my life.

That was when I got my little saying I always had been “believe you can achieve” and never looked back on that. I have had a lot of knockdowns with Dyspraxia, with the help of my dad and the friendships I made, I was able to recover and have that fight. My dad is the biggest support network. He always helps me by writing me things to-do lists and consistently reminds me to do things. Even though he gets frustrated now and again, he always shows commitment and always has belief in me as he continues to support me in many ways. As a result of this, I went on and passed my door supervisor course became licensed in 2019 with my SIA DS badge and been in the sector for nearly 6 years.

Looking back at everything. Even though school life at times was pretty frustrating because people do not understand how difficult life can be for me; I’ve learnt the value of how important communications are. It is absolutely vital to help people understand and to help them fit into society. I learnt that as soon as you let Dyspraxia get in the way and let it beat you, you will never achieve what you want. The way I see dyspraxia now is it will be a part of me, yes, but it does not stop me from doing what I want, or dictate my life

I’m also now in a group called Dyspraxia Dialogues and one of the main aims is to spread awareness to help people understand what Dyspraxia is and how it impacts people but want to share with people how to get help for it also to express that they should not feel different or an outcast because they got the challenge.

This is my adventure with Dyspraxia. Whether people choose to accept me for who I am or not doesn’t matter to me as at the end of the day I am who I am, but the only thing I will always remember is “If I believe, I will achieve”

Written by Joshua Longley