Driving

Driving is quite a common topic among the many different platforms and support groups for Dyspraxia and quite often its questions such as can a dyspraxic drive or is it harder for someone with Dyspraxia to drive.
the answer to the first question is yes people with dyspraxia can drive either or both a manual and automatic and to answer the second question i think it mostly depends on the person some people take a long time to pass and some people pass first time whether neurodiverse or not but i personally see it as learning  a new skill (which it is) and as with anything some people will find it more difficult than others however with dyspraxia it may take a little bit longer to adapt to driving with the need to be able to focus on more than one thing for driving.
my personal experiences of driving and learning to drive is that i started learning on my 17th birthday which i remember was a 2 hour lesson of which the first 30 mins-1 hour was meting the instructor who i'm pretty sure was aware i have dyspraxia as she had previously taught both my brother and my mum how to drive and i learnt in a manual and it wasn't anything i ever thought about at the time as the driving lesson were a birthday present so also during that first lesson was getting used to what does what in the car and feeling for the biting point of the clutch and as its pretty much a certainty to happen to most people is in the first few lessons i can remember stalling quite a lot and a few late/early gear changes.whilst i was having my lessons i took my theory test which i passed first time and the majority of that as people may know is about safety and road sign/marking and scenario knowledge which i think my cycling has helped with quite a lot and as its multiple choice it is possibly easier for some people and then a few weeks before my 18th birthday i passed my practical driving test at the 2nd attempt and even though it took a year to pass i probably had approximately 25-30 hours of lessons in that time with holidays etc. however different people take longer and lots of people don't pass first or second or even third time for example i think my brother had over 10 tests overall (combined practical and theory) and hes the one in the family that really likes cars.
 i would like to say however that it was after passing my test that had been some of the best but also most challenging experiences of driving and having your own car because as teenager you pass your test and want to start driving straightaway and my parents did get me a second hand car ford escort ( i think for my 18th birthday). i never actually drove that car due to incredibly high insurance a couple of months later i was put onto my mums car insurance for 1 month and i drove that once or twice around quiet areas of town with my dad who didn't like that i occasionally looked down at the gear stick to change gear and quite soon after this my dad bought a different car 2nd hand automatic (this was after selling the ford escort) and that is the car that i currently use and although i've had my license for more than 5 years now i am only into my 2nd year of driving having gone to university in a city where there was not much point to having a car and then when i started driving again once i had come home from university and started driving again i had to get used to it and that took sometime.
i am thinking that i would like to start driving a manual again even though i like driving my automatic as it is quite 'easy' you don't need to worry about changing gear can focus on whats happening on the road around you but i would like to make sure that i'm still able to drive a manual car fairly comfortably.
when learning or considering whether to learn to drive or not and unsure about whether to go an auto or a manual my advice would be to start off with a manual, make sure you find an instructor that suits and understands you and see how you get on in the first few (5 or so) lessons don't worry about stalling or not changing gear correctly even experienced drivers sometimes make these types of mistakes sometimes quite frequently the reason that i suggest this is that if you pass your test in a manual they you have the option to choose what type of car you want whereas if you pass in an automatic you can only legally drive an automatic. and a bit of advice for people who do drive or are new to driving i would say is to not worry about what other drivers are thinking for example there is nothing wrong with going 5,10 mph under the speed limit sometimes 20 even(e.g. 50 on a 70 road is fine) and if there are impatient people close behind you that's their problem as long as your driving safely within the laws of the road it should never be a problem.
the speed limit is the limit not the target.
thanks for reading this blog and i hope some of it at least is useful for people