The Missing Pieces #1 : In a Nutshell & Diagnosis

image source. 

Hey everyone

Today I'm beginning my new 'series' about DCD and sensory processing and a few other things that have affected me in the past. There'll be four blogposts which are quite long so I hope you's don't mind and I'll be posting one a week. Before I start I want to make it quite clear  that I'm not 'attention seeking' or anything like that in any of these blogposts. This week I'm covering the basics of DCD, etc. and also about diagnosis. I'll explain in more detail in the next blogposts but I'm going to quote parts of the article I wrote for kiss magazine last year about dyspraxia to explain briefly cos I'm lazy.

"I have dyspraxia or to be specific Developmental Coordination Disorder & I also have Sensory Processing Disorder. Dyspraxia for me means that I can't catch a ball or do tumbles & I have a fear of running but it's also much more than that. I find it awkward to make eye contact and sometimes make silly mistakes"

"Because of my SPD my nerves are never at zero. After something upsetting happens a non-SPD's nerves will go back to zero after a while but mine build up until I have a meltdown where I scream and shout."

"Dyspraxia's a hidden disorder it used to be known as clumsy child syndrome"

"As many as one in thirty kids can be affected by it."

So that's alot to read and write ! As you can tell dyspraxia affects me very single day and it is affected me now as I wrote this because my hand is sore and tired from writing. It's almost midnight I must add hashtag nightbird.

All dyspraxics are different I doubt any two are the exact same ! For example one of my very good friends is both dyslexic and dyspraxic and might as well be the complete opposite to me ! We were at her house one time and she was climbing one of her friends and I was like no way cos I was afraid I would fall from the tree or the tee would fall down on me if I walked near it ! Rather than ramble for years in the next few blogposts I'm going to write three long paragraphs for you know about how I found out I was dyspraxic and briefly how this has affected me in my life

My parents had never heard of dyspraxia because it wasn't and still isn't as 'high profile' as dyslexia, ADHD, etc. and is of course a hidden disorder ! As a baby and toddler everything I did turns out to be a sign of dyspraxia and SPD ! I didn't walk until I was two and didn't run until I was tree ! Apparently in my playschool (kindergarten.) at the start of each day I would stand at the back of the room and scan the room for like a half an hour. I do remember though having very poor social integration skills and this is where my low self esteem and social anxiety began. I junior infants (five years old.) I used to be told off for not being able to catch a ball which I still can't do and I also got told off for not being able to hold a pen properly ! In senior infants I formed my own way of holding a pen which I'll add a photo of in the next post & eventually the teachers gave up telling me off and trying to teach me how to hold it which was pointless. Throughout primary school my coordination worsened (in my opinion.) and so did my social skills and social anxiety 

although my school never suspected a thing !

2010 in Fifth Class my second last year of primary school I found out I was dyspraxic more less. The story goes that for the six weeks of every school year us students were blessed (cough sarcasm cough.) with the 'such fun' of swimming lessons where we watched the teachers with their coffees in the coffee shop from the cold swim pool and got changed out of our togs even slower as they knocked on the changing room doors yelling to hurry up. Pleasant. Anyway so there was a 'big pool for 'advanced swimmers' & a 'small pool' for those who 'swam' around grasping red floats and the three inch high baby pool for .... Babies. Myself and two of my friends were alway in the 'small pool' and laughed it off but one week our teachers bribed everyone in our two fifth classes to move up to the big pool and everyone went except for me. I just kinda sat there in the small pool just chilling with the Senior Infants who were five years younger than me smart brats yelling at me "Look at that she's in the small pool an she's a big girl hahh" "our John is in the big pool and he's younger than you" today they would've got a slap and middle finger salute from me. The instructors wouldn't let myself or my friends go over to each other at 'fun time' so I just swam in the baby pool which is still the only pool I can swim in.

So I went home & blubbed and cried to my mam what happened so she rang our doctor because she knew something wasn't right and hey ho "I think your daughters dyspraxic" but of course I wasn't fully diagnosed until two years later which I'll get to in one moment now.

So to speak of the years after, My teacher who I had for both fifth & sixth class was very fair because she allowed me not to go swim lessons which was compulsory. My 'problems' with dyspraxia seemed to affect me less in Sixth class and even my social anxiety became a distant memory but at the end of the year when I finished primary school I decided to go to the new secondary school where nobody in my class were going. This was pretty much the worst mistake I've ever made and the worst year ever too. I'm not going to lie, I was bullied last year I didn't fit in at all and I went through very bad depression. Also in First Year I was diagnosed with Dyspraxia & Sensory Processing and also found out that I had scoliosis  because I have low muscle tone which is quite common in dyspraxics. Luckily at the start of summer my parents decided to move me to the original school I was suppose to go to where all my friends where which was the best decision and I've had a brilliant year in this school.

Things are ok right now but even when things are really bad all there is to do is put a smile on my face and think positive and remember that things could be much worse. I know this probably sounds weird but I also want to say that if you ever want to talk to someone who doesn't know you personally and won't judge you you can email me if you want. I'm obviously not qualified as a counsellor or anything hah but I'm a good listener (I think.) even though I'd be reading not listening but anyway, My email address is at the bottom.

I hope you's enjoyed this blogpost and I'll see you's soon. The next blogpost in this series will be about DCD and coordination issues.

Grace x

FACEBOOK | EMAIL | INSTAGRAM | YOUTUBE