Saturday 11 August 2012

What is Dyspraxia?

Dyspraxia is a hard disability and mental problem to explain and understand. Many people have already lived  
with Dyspraxia our lives being misunderstood and being told that we are a danger to society. The world understands that the world can know everything right away. No one is blaming anyone but if Dyspraxia was understood many years, we may have had the right support and may not have been classed health hazards and useless people. This disability has caused us to be made to feel guilty for things we can't help and also caused us be hated by the world. We understand it's understandable in one way for the health and safety of others but not the fault on purpose of the people who have the disabilities. The awareness is good but all very well to raise when there's not the money in the world to support it. One thing is raising understanding of Dyspraxia so we can be at least understood for what our disability is about.
Dyspraxia is when people are unaware of the world around them. It's too easy to not look where your going, bang into things and people around you. People with Dyspraxia can find pyscial and mental skills hard. Dyspraxia  is mostly misunderstood as been a danger to society, which you are but with the right support you can get by in life.
 The reason for Dyspraxia being misunderstood is because it's a hidden disability. Yet with Dyspraxia being a lot to do with the body and brain, even though it's hidden because people can walk and talk it's more major than those disabilities who need 24 hour care in everything. Advantage is that people with Dyspraxia  have the ability though to ask for help if we need it. There's just a wide circle of skills we find hard. The cause of being misunderstood is the fact we can walk and talk so people think we can manage our lives the same as them. Dyspraxia is a Motor skills and co -ordation disability but it is also can be a reading and writing disability not much different to dyslexicia.

For eg; a baby may find it hard to roll over, take longer to stand up and balance, walking, climbing, slower to talk and be understood.

Exercise may be harder to access, some people may only manage swimming, exercise or and even horse riding. Some people may not manage to ride a real bike. Some people may find it hard to hop, jump, run fast and even skip. Some people may find it hard to throw and catch a ball. Some people may find it hard to stand for a long time.

 Children may be slower to walk up and down stairs safety without support. There are some stairs even adults and teenagers may not be able to manage without support. Some stairs can be harder for some people to manage than others. Some people find it hard to dress, tie shoe laces and etc.

 For most of us it can affect our lives with not being able to drive a car and not being able to have children because of carrying and lifting. As time goes on support get's better in some ways but not in others. On the other hands with the cuts the government is making it's hard to say what the future is.

Other examples
  • Doing jigsaws
  • Gripping pencils
  • Playing games
  • Mixing with people
  • communicating 
  • Reading
  • Writing
  • Emotional problems
  • Poor short term memory
  • Using a knife and fork
  • Carrying hot drinks in the left hand or and you may be only able to carry one hot drink at a time.
  • Personnel care for eg; cleaning teeth, washing hair, shaving, cutting toe nails and etc.
  • Emptying the hoover and putting it back together again.
  • Finding it hard to understand people and make friends.
  • Poor vision
  • Sensitive to light
  • Sensitive to nose
  • Sensitive to touch
  • Sensitive to taste
  • Lack of awareness in body positive, space and spatial relationships.
  • Hard to take in information.
  • Hard to keep tidy.
  • Cooking for eg; carrying heavy joints out of the oven, chopping up and straining veg.
  • Hard to learn sounds, movements and prove reading.
  • Hard to concentrate on too many things at once.
  • Slow to do a job and finish it.
  • Day dream be in a world of our own.
  • Find hard to listen people in groups and take in what they say.
  • Finding hard to understand people and be understood by them. 
  •  Change can take a while to get use to whether it's good or bad.
  • Good and bad days for eg; something we managed great yesterday we are coping really bad today.
  • Some skills we just never manage but others we manage for life.
  • We may get frustrated and angry easy.
  • We just might give up if people give up on us too easy.
  • We may be stressed and anxious easy.
  • We may feel low in our self esteem. 
  • We may get upset easy.
Other awarenesses of the disability.
Some people with Dyspraxia have flat feet but I also have wide feet. I have really bad problems getting shoes to fit me. Some people even find it hard to type and grip the mouse on a computer. My problem can be I type so fast I don't notice my spelling mistakes and the words I have missed out of sentences. Some people find it hard to plan things. Some of us have poor relocating cannot look quickly and effectively from one object to other, looking from the television to magazine.

Although there seems be a lot of things that we find hard, there are some things that get better through our lives. I still remember as a child finding it hard for a lot years cutting meat up with a knife and fork. In some cases, if someone is on some medications the side effects can make life even more harder for them. If you have a lot of problems with hands, some medications can make than worse, which make some people shake.  Not everyone finds the same things hard and not everyone finds the same things easy. I even find with some things I just have good days and bad. Strangely in some things there are some weaknesses that can turn into confidences because with this being a life time disability you become used to what you can and can't cope. The fact that we are keen, willing people because we find so many things hard we don't give up until we achieve what we want to. Sometimes though society gives up on us. To start with it may seem hard to believe that there are positives in Dyspraxia but it's takes a long time to believe in that, your disability and most of all yourself. You can  find so many things hard yet it's to believe the bad as well as the good because you don't appear to strangers to have disabilities.
Our lives aren't all black and white there are positives about us yet some are from the things we do find hard.

  • Some things that we may see different to other people can be right.
  • We find it easy to get along with people if they understand us and we understand them.
  • People need to give themselves time and us time to get to know one another.
  • We can be carrying people who need support as much or if not more than us.
  • We have powerful and creative imagination in our day dreams.
  • We are very keen learners despite of finding learning hard, nothing stops us.
  • We have good long term memories.
  • We can create for eg; creative writing art painting and drawing. 
The causes of Dyspraxia.
As far as I know Dyspraxia is cause by lack of orgxen to the brain at birth or when a baby is born too early. I think this can be linked to epilepsy or and a stroke. I think are many other causes of Dyspraxia.


Different forms of Dyspraxia.

It sounds as if the world has a lot to learn about Dyspraxia, which is hardy surprising as it's a hard disability to understand and explain. Just because I am Dyspraxia, doesn't mean I know everything about it. In my respects the world knows more than me. What I do know is how it has affected my life. I am glad to say now it has opened up now. There may have been thousands of children in my school, I would have been aware but I doubt it. I know what it's like to to feel so alone even though you are more than likely not. Bullying never seems to stop because you look and or seem different to other children. Even by adults your so misunderstood  because quite rightly even adult expects to see a normal child, whatever normal is at the end of the day. Putting yourself in the shoes of parents, life can be a jigasaw puzzle for them when their child is slow at learning or and they know what their disabilities and health problems are.

Movements are to do with Motor skills, Co-ordation and balance. For eg; opening a tin with a can opener.
Language is speech how we sound, make ourselves understood and misunderstood mostly the cases are.
Perception is Understanding and or misunderstanding others, messages, world around us and etc.
It's more likely possible to have all of those forms of Dyspraxia as I have found all those things hard through my life. Having said that when you have a good many other disabilities it can be hard to say what causes what. For eg; I could either Aperger Syndrome or and ADHD, Dyslexia, Epiespy as well as Dyspraxia. could have one form of Dyspraxia, two or all three. I know what I read about Dyspraxia sounds like me.

Sometimes when I am speaking I find it hard to sallow when I speak therefore no understands me. I have always had problems with my tongue, teeth and lips which goes very dry as skin becomes loose. Even though I feed myself, I'm still very messy eater. As a very small child I found very hard grip a knife and fork I think food used to go everywhere other than my mouth over the floor everywhere, although I don't see how I've always loved my food too much and ate too much.

Some words I may say may not come out correct but may not be far off, otherwise I'm well misunderstood. Sometimes I may talk too quiet in case I don't sound like how I want to sound like. Yet when I am sure of myself it works opposite I can be too loud.     

Some famous people with Dyspraxia.

Daniel Radcliffle who plays Harry Potter, David Bailey who takes pictures, Florence Welch, Hannah McDonnell actor, Helen Burns character out of Jane Eyre, Samuel Taylor Coleridge poet, CK Chestern, Ern  est Hemingway, Jack Kerouac, and George Orwell writer.

Wednesday 8 August 2012

Up dating a five year diary.

I stopped writing my diaries back 2007 when my Grandmother died and my last relationship broke up on the same year. The great thing was that I had a new job that kept me very busy, which was Royal Wolverhampton Mencap as a Self Advocacy worker for Our Shout and Learning Disability Awareness trainer. With my Grandmother's death and the break up of my ex boyfriend I don't know what I would have done without Mencap and Our Shout. 2007 was a strange year looking back there were good and bad things happening at once. My ex boyfriend me breaking up was a good thing in the end but I will never stop missing my Grandmother. Before May 2011, work was coming in like anything, my diary was full and meetings were clashing. Ever since May 2011, not a lot of work at all through the cut backs. It started off that I lost my small business Access All Areas Now! Mencap supported me and someone else with learning disabilities to have, which only lasted 12 mouths due to the cuts.

From last Christmas I started to to get myself on courses to try and get me back to work, which is now still going on. Before then I was just going into depression and receiving counselling. Now I am starting to look on the positive side by doing Self Advocacy and Learning Disability awareness non paid for Wolverhampton, which is for women who have faced abuse one way or the other. As a person with disabilities whose faced crime, it's not much different when abuse is one of the crimes I have faced. Crime is hard for all people, we all need emotion support but people disabilities and health problems even more so mainly when you have Anxiety and depression without anything to be upset about. Like I said in my last blog unless you face these things yourself it's hard to understand and believe.

What has happened in the last five years? Not a lot really other than trying to get some admin experience, I haven't been able to get Admin experience other than a placement that only lasted 3 mouths but that was long before 5 years ago. I need this for my Self Advocacy and Learning Disability Awareness so I can type my own training packages and plan my sessions. I haven't long passed my Entry Level ITQ computer course and I am now working on Level one.

In  the past 12 mouths or so the government has cut back on things deeper and deeper. When thing about it's always been there. I even heard as a child on the news someone saying the richer are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer. It's hard to say whether yesterday was harder than today or today is harder than
yesterday. There again we should be happy with what we have got the world isn't all black and white. Nothing can be good all the while nothing be bad all the while. It would be a boring world if it was all the same.