Monday 12 November 2018

FOOD

How can Dyspraxia affect food? you may ask, well these are just some of the aspects
Taste and Textures
Layout/Plate spacing
Cutlery

Dyspraxia is probably not something that most people would think affects food however as alot of people with dyspraxia have sensitivity issues this can have a very large siginificant impact on the food and the way we eat our food
the hyper or hypo sensitivity aspect of dyspraxia can have a huge impact on both the texture and taste of foods possibly to the extent not being able to eat a certain item at all or not being able to taste any particular item of food for me chicken is a food that has no flavour its like chewing on nothing and a lot of meats (on their own) are similar and take too long to chew and  quickly lose any of the flavour they may have had.

something that people probably notice more and probably associate more with autism but it also affects dyspraxia a lot is the order and layout of food on plates such as this food cant touch that food or sometimes not having the food on the same plate which for me is when having baked beans they have to go in a seperate bowl to the rest of my dinner and then when actually eating the food i tend to eat in some sort of order such as beans first then mash then sauages its not always exactly the same order all the time (sometimes it is with certain foods) but possibly more noticeable for me is that i always eat each item of food seperately so using sausage mash and beans as the example again i would eat mash then beans then sausages i pretty much never go back and forth.


then the using of cutlery when eating is something that people with dyspraxia may find difficult and dyspraxics may use and hold cutlery in very different ways that could be considered odd by others (fairly similar to pens aswell) i may have gone through this in my everyday/day-to-day life blog. i think the use of cutlery is often referred to as the stab and pull motion and i am aware that i definitely do this, i also always use my right hand for any movement aspect involving cutlery so using sausages as the example again i would cut a sausage with the fork in my left hand (and stab) and knife in my right hand but to then eat the bit of sausage i would swap the fork to my right hand.as well as this the shape of the cutlery i find can make a difference you can just about see that the fork in the above photo has a flat handle which is something i would always choose over a piece of cutlery with a round handle if that option is available.
i have seen that there are different types of cutlery available to help which have different shaped handles very similar to some pens which is something that could help some

Tuesday 25 September 2018

CLOTHES

dyspraxia affecting clothes? and it is not just the fastenings (laces/buttons/zips) these are some of the other aspects that can cause issues
Textures
Weight
Material
Fit
once again this is another thing that i think lots of people wouldn't make the connection between other than laces, buttons and/or zips. which is another link between dyspraxia and sensitivity and these effects can be quite extreme and as mentioned above material and textures and even how heavy certain clothes feel can have a major impact and influence on the type of clothes people with dyspraxia can wear
the material and texture generally has a major impact (possibly the biggest other than fasteners) on clothing for dyspraxics sometimes to the point that we can be unable to wear certain types of clothing even if there is only a minor difference due to hypersensitivity it can feel like a major difference. for me personally i cannot wear jeans because the feel of them on my legs is quite rough and that is what prevents me from being able to wear them comfortably in fact the one time i can remember wearing jeans i actually had tracksuit bottoms on underneath (it was something like jeans for genes day at school?).
sometimes linked to the material of clothes can be the weight of certain clothes and how heavy/bulky they feel and this can very offputting and irritating especially if you generally wear quite lightweight clothing (this works the other way aswell). an example of this is i have a few quite thick and bulky hoodies/t-shirts that i very rarely if ever wear including some things that have been given to me for free.
something that perhaps can be linked to the two previous points combined with hypersensitivity is the fit of certain clothes as some clothes are designed to be very tight and others very loose and this may not have a really big affect as people get older i know that at points for me i have really disliked tight fitting clothing (perhaps this changed the more i got into cycling) and something that i still really dislike is short (trainer) socks i always wear mid to long length.
now moving onto the fastenings on clothes such butons, zips and the dreaded shoelaces as im sure many many dyspraxics (and parents) are all too aware can be incredibly difficult, frustrating and generally take longer to do and learn. with laces i myself learned to do them when i was 13 years old and this was a repeated process many times in the years before this. buttons especially if they are quite small can be nightmare to do up and certain fabrics can intefere with this aswell as it links to the motor skills difficulties that come with having dyspraxia and even as an adult if wearing a button up shirt i sometimes miss a button (this happend the other day with a bedsheet so its not just clothes) or have to have repeated attemps at the same one.

Monday 6 August 2018

Tiredness/Fatigue

this blog is about how people with dyspraxia can often feel tired alot of the time.
dyspraxic people can often be tired much of the time, it may not be that they are so tired they are struggling to stay awake it may be that they feel tired a lot of the time which is often what its like for me.
the reasons for this could be fairly simple/ normal lack of sleep or food, long day working etc. however people who arent affected by these things may still feel very tired and others may wonder why but people who have dyspraxia have to work harder just to do the 'simple' stuff the things that others dont even think about. so as dyspraxics we thinking about about things as simple as walking, stairs, conversations and where are brain can go into overdrive and we end up overthinking things.for example when i carry a cup all of my focus is on carrying that cup (attempting not to spill a hot drink over myself) and walking and when going up stairs (usually in public adapted to the stairs in my house) im looking at each individual step to make sure my foot is fully on the step and as far as im aware these are things that people who are not neurodiverse just do without thinking
so it is more mental exertion lots of focusing in little things that uses up more energy than anyone could think that doesnt mean to say it is just the thinking about doing things that causes us to be tired it is a combination of the mental exertion combined with any physical exertion that can also often be repeated.
and when tired the physical aspects of dyspraxia can become more pronounced i always find that when im really tired i tend to be a bit more clumsy than usual.
it is possible for neurodiverse people to adapt to these situations and be more resistant to fatigue but this will happen gradually and over time and there will always be a limit for different individuals and as always not all individuals will be affected in the same way.