Is the experience of a Dyspraxic parallel to Asperger's

Page 1 of 2 [ 22 posts ]  Go to page 1, 2  Next

epitome81
Blue Jay
Blue Jay

User avatar

Joined: 29 Jan 2013
Age: 42
Gender: Female
Posts: 97
Location: Arnold, MD

31 Jan 2013, 12:38 am

Hi everyone, I'm new around here. I'm gaining a ton of insight and I see now why I tend to not be as close with NTs since I'm technically not one of them, which I'm totally cool with BTW, even though I have some things in common. :) I'm noticing I have more in common with Asperger's than once would assume at first glance. When I was diagnosed it was not called Dyspraxia (it was called Clumsy Child Syndrome and I did NOT grow out of it!) also Asperger's was not a medical diagnosis ether (it was the early 80s). I am very anecdotal and hands on, even though I rely on muscle memory and many learned behaviors. The main difference is upon first glance I'm seemingly NT with awkwardness and unconventional intelligence (note: this assumption tends to leave quickly). Some other factors in my case may play a role (ADHD, Dyslexia, SPD, Anxiety), but is this somewhere on the same wavelength even though I'm missing the piece of the puzzle to understand the thought process to the social/communication differences on the Autistic Spectrum?

Please pardon my weirdness on these forums, I come with my own brand of similarities from an astoundingly similar realm of existence.



Dannyboy271
Snowy Owl
Snowy Owl

User avatar

Joined: 24 Jun 2012
Gender: Male
Posts: 156

31 Jan 2013, 4:07 am

Your on WrongPlanet, don't worry about being weird.

Well, it sounds a lot like you could have aspergers. I can't give you a clear answer, but in regards to the thought process behind the social behavior of an asp; asps get their social awkwardness from their lack of understanding of superficial situations. We tend to be honest, lying is either really hard or a skill that took tons of work to perfect. Along with this, it's also hard to fake behavior or read body language and still follow a conversation where the other person isn't speaking their mind. This causes plenty of social misinterpretation, which leads to anxiety, which leads to very nervous and socially restricted aspie people. The nervousness isn't mandatory, as it can easily be overcome, but the lack of understanding of body language or superficial conversation usually sticks.

That's in most cases. A common example is when an aspie is talking to a NT friend after a long separation, and despite their long friendship, the emotional wall is put in place. The NT friend may initiate small talk, and talk about things that he knows both of them really don't care about just to build rapport again and rebuild each others trust. In usual cases, this will discomfort or irritate the aspie as it's hard for them to fake interest in a conversation with no substance.

Anyway, not all asps are alike. So not everyone is going to fit those behavoirs, but it's the basic idea of aspie social patterns.



Ettina
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 13 Jan 2011
Age: 34
Gender: Female
Posts: 3,971

31 Jan 2013, 5:42 am

Dyspraxia technically means only the clumsiness - if you have non-motor issues, those deserve a separate diagnosis.

Dyspraxia is a very common symptom of AS, and therefore there are many AS people who first get recognized on the basis of being clumsy. And it seems that AS is probably pretty common in people with dyspraxia, as well.

NVLD also is associated with clumsiness and AS traits, so that would be another thing to look at. It's diagnosed on the basis of significantly better verbal than nonverbal skills. It's very common in AS, and overlaps quite a bit in terms of social skills (the difference is NVLD doesn't cause repetitive behavior and AS doesn't cause poor visuospatial skills).



rapidroy
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 28 Dec 2012
Age: 34
Gender: Female
Posts: 1,411
Location: Ontario Canada

31 Jan 2013, 6:30 am

I've wondered this too, dispite having OT and speech therapy as a child I still have large challanges in these areas, I'm the person who trys to remove one item from a shelf and end up with 3, walks into stairs and falls etc. I've found work arounds for 90% of my clumsyness/weakness/uncordination however it impares enough to prevent me from being effencent enough to work in meny phyical jobs even though I know how to do them well, for this people say i'm lazy or acting like a girl. When I say words like shock it sounds like sock etc.

also I tend to read/comprehend writen word, write and perform math on the leval of a 8-10 year old based on my 1/2 brother, yet I feel i'd pass an IQ test quite well, not sure if the later symptom math comes in as far is dyspraxia. Unlike meny here I find writeing harder then talking and talking isn't easy, my thought is should I just chalk those things up as more sevare symtoms of AS (I meet all critera, fully diagonosed) or is their another anwser to be found. I'm too wondering if theres a link.



epitome81
Blue Jay
Blue Jay

User avatar

Joined: 29 Jan 2013
Age: 42
Gender: Female
Posts: 97
Location: Arnold, MD

31 Jan 2013, 3:17 pm

I can attest to there being a lot more to Dyspraxia than clumsiness http://www.dyspraxiausa.org/symptoms/adult-symptoms/ :lol:

Thanks for the welcome Dannyboy! I took the Aspie Quiz last night and I somehow have that graph looking like a "plus sign" (82 out of 200 Aspie positive, 126 out of 200 NT positive, says I'm likely NT even though I kinda flunked the sections related to conditions I do have) I'm not sure how they relate a 50/50 result as NT. I would have done horribly had I not received the assistance I did when small. I understand most of those unspoken things in NTs although I don't normally feel as they do, I also tend to not understand many AS things from an "experience perspective" considering I am an ESTJ which is not a usual personality I would think for AS. Kinda funny being in the middle, but I'm convinced these things are somehow related in some way.

Rapidroy: I required OT and speech therapy as a kid, I do still stutter very badly mid meltdown during a sensory overload. I'm pretty physical (my doctor had me put in dance class upon diagnosis) and I teach and spin fire for a living. Dyspraxia has helped me teach people to do physical things from a very different perspective. Fine motor skills, order of operation, and a horrible sense of direction are my biggest struggles. Unlike AS I have no social issues per se (pending I'm hanging out with certain types of people, mainly spontaneous and unconventional)... Talking is far more simple than writing, writing is so structured and I don't do structure well at all being dyspraxic. If you have an issue with orders of operation like required in math it could be the dyspraxia.



SkyHeart
Snowy Owl
Snowy Owl

User avatar

Joined: 7 Jan 2012
Gender: Female
Posts: 161

31 Jan 2013, 4:11 pm

that is a good list. I knwo people with a diagnosis of dyspraxia only. they are just like that list. dyspraxia is a lot mroe than just movement.



rapidroy
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 28 Dec 2012
Age: 34
Gender: Female
Posts: 1,411
Location: Ontario Canada

01 Feb 2013, 12:10 am

Thanks, I fool people all the time becouse I have learned to work smarter not harder, I do alot of mechcanic work at home and have learned a prybar is my best friend, so is weighing 200lbs its better to stand on things then to try to hold them, main thing is that i'm slow and ineffecent so that takes me out of meny phyical jobs, AS sensory issues don't help either. I also have taken up guitar so I think that helps too. I often forget instructions and simple procedures if not written down in detail or lose stuff, asemble stuff in the wrong order/missing steps too if not really careful.

I find my writing/typing style never matches my talking style at all, if we met face to face you would not know I wrote this, i'm better in real life honest. I'm great at budgeting but I cant count, mutliply, divide etc in my head past the basic grade 2 or 3 stuff. In grade 5 my spelling book has the world spelling corrected by my teacher on the cover, opps. Alot of people on here don't appear to have have my kind of issues though at least in sevarity, meny appear gifted in these areas.

I would fit the wikipedia critera for dysprexia however I fit all the criteria for aspergers(confermed by doctors) and I know I won't be a 1 on the severity scale. So thats my story.



epitome81
Blue Jay
Blue Jay

User avatar

Joined: 29 Jan 2013
Age: 42
Gender: Female
Posts: 97
Location: Arnold, MD

01 Feb 2013, 2:19 am

I know exactly what you mean and it all sounds familiar! No shame in working smarter! :D

If it is any consolation I can tell you that the secret to dyspraxia is making your own methods to come to the same solutions as others and committing tasks to muscle memory and strategy over time get much easier. I still write and "do math correctly(according to teachers)" far below my verbal and conceptual ability. With the right tools most of dyspraxia can be lessoned, the spacial and sensory issues however I've found no solutions for.

It does get better with age it seems, but I think it's more about drilling the skills while your frontal lobes are finishing development. Mine just finished up last year according to neuroscience and I must say the start of my 30s are far better than my 20s. I know I will not outgrow it and I will need to do strange things to get by (i.e. crack my window to drive since I need my ears to tell me my speed and where I am on the road or hold up my hands in "L's" to know right from left. Sometimes I make sure to do things privately that cause anxiety like button a coat or plan out shopping trips), but accepting its just a different way made all the difference in the world.

There is just so much similar its uncanny in a way, if dyspraxic strategies make your life better by all means use 'em! :) I think the worlds are closer than anyone really knows...



Stalk
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 19 Jul 2012
Age: 45
Gender: Male
Posts: 2,129

01 Feb 2013, 6:53 am

hi epitome81

Thanks for that link to Dyspraxia. I would say that I do have some of those symptoms. But then I also have some of the things for Dyslexia. The unconventional part... well yes that's me too. I found out by checking out the R-Drive personality test.

As for the difference between dyspraxia and AS I wouldn't know as I was not diagnosed officially. There is the AQ test which I scored only 23, but aspie-quiz gives me 151/200 and the RAADS-R test results in 171. So currently for me I'm slightly eccentric, clumsy to borderline mild Asperger. Then there's that unconventional thing I have. When people say left I go right. I guess maybe that is part of my stubbornness.

Hope you gain more insight.



rapidroy
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 28 Dec 2012
Age: 34
Gender: Female
Posts: 1,411
Location: Ontario Canada

01 Feb 2013, 7:49 am

Just read the link posted I can relate highly, I can remember too word problems were one of my struggles in math as well, also algeabra and any questions with letters or forumulas, when counting $20 bills i'm lost after $400 etc, I got a 57 in my last math class, I passed it becouse I handed in my homework all the time. My english marks got up to 75 or so when they started to focus on stuff like advertising and not so much on spelling, grammer, creative writing etc. Heres something I have that may be of intrest, I can read upside down and upside up equally good (or bad).



Mummy_of_Peanut
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 20 Feb 2011
Age: 51
Gender: Female
Posts: 3,564
Location: Bonnie Scotland

01 Feb 2013, 8:09 am

My daughter and my neighbour's son both have diagnoses of Aspergers. But, there's a huge difference between them, the most notable being the fact that he obviously has dyspraxia too, she doesn't. It's not just a bit of clumsiness and being all fingers and thumbs. He really struggles with basic tasks, which other children have mastered before starting school. When he walks, he often looks like he's still learning. My daughter had a more grown-up gait at around 18 months. It's very common for dyspraxia to come alongside Aspergers, but it's not a given. I think they warrant separate diagnoses.


_________________
"We act as though comfort and luxury were the chief requirements of life, when all we need to make us really happy is something to be enthusiatic about." Charles Kingsley


rapidroy
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 28 Dec 2012
Age: 34
Gender: Female
Posts: 1,411
Location: Ontario Canada

01 Feb 2013, 8:21 am

I can't walk right either, I shuffle/drag my feet and can kill a new pair of shoes in a week and a 1/2they if are soft enough, I put holes through the heels of them. I prefer shoes to boots for simular reasons, even in bad weather.



Jinks
Deinonychus
Deinonychus

User avatar

Joined: 31 Aug 2012
Age: 42
Gender: Male
Posts: 333

01 Feb 2013, 9:36 am

epitome81 wrote:
I can attest to there being a lot more to Dyspraxia than clumsiness http://www.dyspraxiausa.org/symptoms/adult-symptoms/ :lol:


To me this list sounds like a detailed description of autism, and I find that interesting. It makes me suspect that before the scientific community figured out HFA/AS and started diagnosing it in the 90s, many autistic people might have been given this diagnosis instead, which may have led to the distinction between the two being blurred. That confusion is understandable as there seems to be a great deal of overlap between the two, but it's also a little concerning because IMO someone who has all/most of the symptoms in that list displays a strong presentation of autistic thinking patterns and should probably be diagnosed on the autism spectrum. Surely the social/sensory/mental issues described there such as taking language literally, sensitivity to light and so on should be considered ASD symptoms, and the motor control issues should be considered dyspraxia symptoms? I'm by no means a professional and just offering my thoughts, but my feeling is that that symptom list may be confusing two related diagnoses. Alternatively, if it is correct and people with dyspraxia do always show the autistic thinking described here, perhaps they shouldn't be considered distinct diagnoses at all?

I think it's certainly worth the OP investigating the possibility of having an assessment for an ASD, particularly if you display a lot of the social, emotional and mental difficulties described in that list and in the autism diagnostic critera.



rapidroy
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 28 Dec 2012
Age: 34
Gender: Female
Posts: 1,411
Location: Ontario Canada

01 Feb 2013, 6:18 pm

I agree, I'm 95% certin I could get a dyspraxia diagonsis though not sure what benifit i would get as my asperger one gets me what I need. I also wonder if a doctor would just deny it becouse of the overlap/double diagnosis and in that case AS wins out easy. I suppose I can be dyspraxic though anyway not that I like self diagnosis and great another word I can't pronounce. Got to ask though what did you (OP) think/say when they told you that you had clumsy child syndrome? sounds like something a traviling medicene salesmen would say in the 1800's.



verlorenModus
Tufted Titmouse
Tufted Titmouse

User avatar

Joined: 10 Oct 2012
Age: 41
Gender: Female
Posts: 44

02 Feb 2013, 6:02 am

oh yes. its done wonders for my reflexes... im so used to knocking things over that i can offten catch them before they hit the ground and when i trip over things i can catch myself without falling down, or at least not hurt myself in the fall. i very good at falling. :P if i could just get the knack of not falling/knocking things over i'll have it made. :lol:



rapidroy
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 28 Dec 2012
Age: 34
Gender: Female
Posts: 1,411
Location: Ontario Canada

03 Feb 2013, 1:50 am

Thinking about this thread I may have hit on something that may explain not all but some of my spelling issues. Example take the word "pressure" I can't pronounce it as I slur it and brake he sylibles in the wrong places, in school we were tought to sound the words out to spell them. When I sound out the word it becomes "presser" becouse thats how i pronounce it. What i'm saying is I think if you can't talk right the usual methods of learning these skills don't always apply.