Anybody have really poor fine motor skills?

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Does anybody else have really poor fine motor skills. Mine are terrible! It's basically been that way my whole life.

-in school my teachers made me use a pencil grip because of my poor penmanship
-in elementary school from grades 4-6 we were only allowed writing in pen if we had neat handwriting, we got these things called "pen licenses" that we earned with consistently neat penmanship, I never got mine
-I didn't learn hot to tie my shoes until....I can't even tell you I`m too embarrassed even now I`m slow at tying up things
-one of the reasons why I`m partially anxious to eat in a formal setting is because I`m not very good at cutting up my food and it looks really awkward when I`m eating, if I`m at home I escape to the kitchen and pre-cut my food so I don`t have to do it in front of everyone
-I had trouble styling my hair until I was an older teen, I still can`t do anything fancy
-I`m really slow at picking up small things like coins, I tried a cashier job before...bad fine motor skills + being slow at math + social anxiety= a nervous, shaking, freaked out girl
-I can`t draw worth anything
-I can`t ride a bike
-I can`t swim
-I can`t skate
-I have trouble peeling and cutting certain foods

I remember I had to have a physical therapist, I think it was...when I was a preteen to strengthen up my muscles, I had to squeeze those squishy stress balls and do certain exercises so my hands would get stronger.

Anybody else had or still have poor fine motor skills?

Last edited by lostgirl1986 on 15 Apr 2012, 7:49 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Yeah, mine are horrible.

I avoid using chopsticks around people.
I can't fathom how people can hold their pencil or pen correctly. The right way is just uncomfortable in my grasp.
I can't swim.
I clumsily tie my shoelaces. I learned the right way to do that when I was 16.
I can't land a single trick on a skateboard.
I'm artistic but my hand is shaky.
I tend to break some of the toughest objects in my hands though.
It took me ages to get my pen license.
I hate chopping food in the kitchen in front of people. Usually because they try to show me the right way to do it.
It's tough cutting foods in restaurants but I just make a lot of jokes about it.
Cannot ride a bike too.

The gross motor skills are just as bad.

I should add: people always say I take too long in the shower and I know it takes me ages to dress myself. My motor skills are that poor that even putting on a shirt or jeans can take a long time.

My only problem is handwriting, which only 10 or so people (including teachers) can read. I can't tie shoes or ride a bike either, but I think thats mostly because I never had any use for either skill so never learned.

My handwriting is terrible but readable. I can skate and iceskate, but it looks like I will fall the whole time. I am not a very good drawer. The therapist in the elementary school wanted me to draw my family and I refused. I got emotional over it because she would not let up on it. She told my mom this and my mom just thought So? He does not like to draw so why force him.

-Can barely tie my shoes;
-Cannot swim correctly.

I think my handwriting is alright for the most part. I still have trouble playing the guitar though, despite playing for 6 years now. I'll drop something by accident at least every other day, and I am rather accident prone in general. As soon as one cut heals, I end up getting another one. Bleh.

I have NVLD, nonverbal learning disorder. It's a deficiency in the right side of the brain, basically it makes your verbal IQ pretty high, but your nonverbal, which is motor skills, math but then also social and body language and all that, pretty low. When I was tested, they said my gap was 130+ verbal IQ, but then about 80 nonverbal IQ. So in my case, it "looks" like AS, but it's got a specific causation, it's not a "mystery" disease like AS. It might be something you wanna look into, NVLD. It's a more useful diagnosis imo, as first off, it's not subjective and based on behavior like AS is.

Anyway, yeah, I wasn't THAT bad, but in, say, sports, for me to even be able to be competent, I have to seemingly try like hell, and did as a kid. So for boys games type things, took me like...I'd say 1.5-2x more time than most everyone else to learn to say, shoot a basketball without granny shooting it. I didn't learn to tie my shoes until 4th grade. But at the same time, in kindergarten I was (apparently according to test anyway) reading at a 12th grade level. Quite perplexing to people how someone can not tie his shoes but be a "genius" like that. I didn't get to work with a PT person, however my sister's physical therapist one time pulled me aside for a session or whatever and said I walked oddly. But, nobody knew about NVLD back then, and I was in a private school, so no diagnosis 'til after high school.

It's worth checking into, NVLD. I think for me, I never realized anything was wrong, and I'd just try like hell at everything.

I'm terrible at tying my shoes
It took me many months to learn how to ride a bike
My handwriting is awful, unless I make a strong effort
I have bad balance
Everyone tells me I walk funny

Ironically enough, I'm great at video games.

well i couldn't roll a joint or cigarette to save my life by hand so I guess so.

Mine are... odd. I can play drums just fine, but I hold a pencil weirdly (I'm a righty but apparently I hold it like a lefty) and can't write or draw worth a crap. I can't skate, roller blade, or skateboard (good biker though).

Edit:

Oh, and like Sweetleaf I couldn't hand roll a joint to save my life

Good biker and skater, OK skateboarder (as in I can't do tricks but can ride one) but I think it's more just motivation for me. I wanted to be a good skater and cyclist, so I tried like hell, and yeah, despite my issues with that sorta thing. Skating's been helpful for me, I feel it's a good sport to get the right brain firing better, as all your moves are very technical and precise, but you still need the "just do it" of the right brain to do them. It's made my reaction times driving a lot faster, for example. Pretty cool stuff.

Let's see...my handwriting is terrible, and I find that most pens and pencils are hard to hold for extended periods of time (thicker pens feel more comfortable in my hands). I'm OK at drawing, but I have a really heavy hand when it comes to writing/drawing. I didn't learn to ride a two-wheeler until I was 10. I didn't learn to tie my shoes until I was 8. When I try to swim, I end up merely splashing in place. My balance isn't great. Tying off a balloon is surprisingly difficult for me. I never quite figured out how to use chopsticks. I still can't snap my fingers. I've never had anyone tell me outright that I walk oddly, but my brother was once able to spot me from afar based solely on how I walk.

And as far as sports go, I've never been able to hit or throw a ball very far and I can't shoot hoops to save my life, but I'm very flexible compared to most men my age.

I'm not sure exactly when I learned to tie my shoes but I couldn't learn in kindergarten and had sneakers with velcro until I was 14.
I can't ride a bike either.
I can't swim except a weak dog paddle. My mother started bringing me to lessons when I was a kid but I had to drop out because I can't put my face in water without getting water up my nose and they wouldn't let me wear a nose plug at the lessons.
I can't skate either.

I can swim and ride a bike well. However, tieing things in general is hard for me(knots in Boy Scouts were a nightmare), my handwriting is awful, and I'm lousy at sports. I can't skate well either, but that is due to my bad left foot. As for the rest: I have motor dysgraphia, which I'm sure is a factor.

Last edited by Sagroth on 16 Apr 2012, 6:15 am, edited 1 time in total.

If I try to swim anything but a weird personal form of breaststroke I just go into an ineffectual flap. I swim MUCH better in dams, rivers and the sea than in sparkley clean swimming pool.
Is swimming fine or gross motor movements

My normal handwriting is illegible to most people and is inconsistent. Letters are formed differently throughout a piece of writing If I really TRY to write "normally" (to address letters etc) it looks like a child has written it while walking through a field.
Mostly I write in block capitals or DRAW each letter carefully individually in a personal decorative serif font.