Sunday 9 July 2017

Disability Awareness page.

This page is for people with dyspraxia and other things linked to it such as Autism, Epilepsy, ADHD, Dyslexia or and etc. It is also written for people who are in the lives of people with these conditions such as parents, families, friends, partners, carers, social workers, support workers or and etc. 



My disability did affect me a lot as a child. I have come a long way, I still have a long way to go. I have always been slow with education and everyday skills. It was when I left school I started to learn how to be independent. Having been bullied at school, I had changed schools a lot but I was still bullied a lot. I’m now very happy to say that I haven’t been bullied during my college days so far. If anything I have learned more and more easily since I have left school than when I was there.

My Auntie’s son Luke taught me how to tie my shoelaces when I was twenty years old, he was only ten. I felt such a fool. It was as if I was a child that was staying a child. Now I have achieved more skills since then I am slowly starting to feel like an adult. I am very grateful to Luke, still better late than never. I used to feel ashamed; this kind of problems encouraged bullying in school. They never understood why I found things harder than most children, well it felt that way to me at the time. Maybe they were the ones with the problems, not just me, otherwise, why did we go to special schools?



My disability has always affected my road sense. I have improved to what I used to be but I still get nervous on busy main roads. I have never been able to ride a bike or drive a car and that will never happen. I can travel through on airplanes, coaches, buses, trains, trams, cars and etc. My disability affects my reflexes, I can’t carry two cups with hot drinks in at once. I can only carry one cup at a time. I have to use my right hand because of my left-hand shakes more than my right. I can’t grip very well with my left hand, it shakes and slips. Now I would say only for about a year or two, my family have discovered that I could be dyspraxia, which to do with hands and even balance. For eg banging into things and people, like I have said with grip, shakes of the hands and cor-anation where you only do one thing at a time, whether it's with your mind or your body. I can be very clumsily at times. I haven't got round to being diagnosed yet. I've had this problem all my life, no one knew until about a year ago that I could have dyspraxia.

It shows how much awareness there was twenty - thirty years ago, which is now. Still better late than never but like I say I need to be diagnosed yet. At the end of the day education is slower than I am, why does it take years to find things out? Still, we can find everything out at once, that's too much to ask. If you or someone you know are the same as me in any way, please drop me an email on sarajgorman@gmail.com I will be very interested to hear your story about your disability on how you cope with it, whoever you are and whatever age you are.


I have never been very good with directions but I am better than I used to be.I will always have the disability I have always had but I make progress each day, which makes me better than I used to be. I used to get angry and upset when not able to do things. Now I can accept the things I can’t do because there have been so many skills I have learned in the last ten years and maybe slightly more. I accept that there’s no way I would be able to have children and drive a car. I think today’s society has made me accept that. It’s unsafe world to bring children up and also there is too much traffic on the roads today. At the end of the da, there are still quite a lot of skills that I could have a chance to achieve in the long term future. What skills, who knows!
I didn't cope most children, I felt as if they were having a better time than I was. I don’t think now that was the case. I may have egged them on to bully me without realizing what I had done was wrong. I could not communicate with anyone, not even myself, they didn't understand me either. I weren't cope with playing games or reading books. Now I understand things better than I used to. I think I still find games hard to understand though.
I can just about cope with my own flat, I have all kinds of friends, I travel independently and I do my own shopping. I am attending college, doing English, creative writing and a computer course. I like drawing and painting. I am hoping to get some training for work so hopefully with the right help me I could become a writer. I am a lot happier and less frustrated compared to how I used to feel.

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