Hi guys, I'm a 20 year old University student from Britain and have just set up this -probably temp- reddit account to discuss and vent about something I'm sure many of you are familiar with.

I was diagnosed at the age of 17, shortly after my Autism diagnosis, and it was a real eye opener and made me realise how much I had been discriminated against in my life.

Throughout my whole life, I had always been criticised for being clumsy and not being able to balance, tie shoes or ride a bike etc.

Now as an adult, I've found little support despite my diagnosis. My father -with whom I am now somewhat estranged- insisted with great adamance that I learn manual, upon my explaining of my disability he pleaded with me to "not let that mindset hold you back".

So from August 2025 to about April 2026 I did lessons in both London and Winchester, London being flat and Winchester being incredibly hilly. My instructor in London after some lessons practically pleaded with me to do automatic, which enraged my father at the time and thus I had no more lessons. Upon moving to university I had done about eight 2-hour lessons and something struck me. I totally understood the fundamentals and how to drive in theory, but it occurred to me that my DCD made the physical part extremely difficult.

Some issues I've found are calculating the speed of traffic at roundabouts, changing gears at high speed but the worst one is hill starts. Now of course, many people including Neurotypicals dread hill starts, but despite hours dedicated to it and knowing what to do, it is essentially impossible for me to keep the clutch still and finely operate and balance the pedals. Indeed, I've noticed that if I try and pull the handbrake down to move off my brain pretty much quits controlling my legs and then I stall.

Cue me not having a job and not being able to pay for auto lessons, all while people act with condescension that I cannot drive and wish to pursue an automatic licence.

Frankly, this post is a bit of a rant and I apologise if inappropriate for this subreddit, but thank you for reading.

Can any of you relate?

My youngest of 6 shows signs of dyspraxia. Next year he'll be tested again, we already had a test this year but he was too young (5 at the time) for a diagnosis. At school he has trouble with anything that involves fine motor skills and so far he had three teachers at school. With all three i had to explain what dyspraxia was, they never heard of it. We are living in a big city and he's going to a school with quite some children, so i was a bit surprised that none of them knew what it was.

Which makes me wonder.... Google says that 1 out of 20 children has dyspraxia, why is it still something unfamiliar to teachers? Are there many children who aren't being evaluated? Or are there many children in whom dyspraxia isn't considered a possibility?

Very curious: Did your child's teacher know what dyspraxia is?

Sometimes I get very frustrated by this. I really struggle with physical tasks can’t drive or ride a bike and what appears simple tasks to her I don’t do well. She thinks this is me being lazy, saying stuff like you could do it but you’re not trying or concentrating.
She’s now saying it’s a big part of the reason she doesn’t want kids because I would be bad at the practical side. We been together 10 years and I love her dearly but it really upsets me.

Am I being overdramatic ?

For some context, I was diagnosed with dyspraxia when I was 11 years old. However when I was 9 I got appendicitis. When the symptoms first came I struggled with stomach cramps in the middle of the night. My mom thought it was just typical tummy troubles but once the high fever came she took me to the doctor to which they suspected appendicitis.

Long story short when I was in the hospital doctors said that they found it baffling how I still had a decent appetite and wasn’t in agony and only had the one night of cramping since my appendix was very inflamed. In their words I should be in horrendous pain. Had an appendectomy and that was it.

After my diagnosis with my dyspraxia my mom was told by the occupational therapist that maybe back then I wasn’t fully able to interpret that pain or found it difficult to recognise my symptoms. After this I’ve always been unsure. I did experience something remotely similar during a kidney infection when I was then 18 ( I’m 24 now).

Fast forward, for the past year or so I’ve been having painful period cramps, 2 weeks or so before the bleeding even begins. I’ve recently been offered a scan because of this just to rule anything out. I contemplated this because it’s only during the odd period, not every period. And it isn’t every night, but when it does happen it’s very painful. My mom says I should get the scan because like my appendicitis, she’s worried I won’t get the symptoms as easily. She’s even worried if I may have endometriosis, I doubt that, but it’s so hard to know.

I know it may sound silly, but I wanted to see if maybe someone experienced anything similar? I’m not sure if there even is a connection between dyspraxia and recognising pain, but after recent conversations with my mother, it’s got me thinking. I really would appreciate some insight. I’m just trying to understand if dyspraxia does play a part when I struggle if something is wrong with my body.

One of my favourite things about this community is seeing someone describe something you’ve done your entire life and realizing that you’re not the only one!

For today to Thursday’s first discussion, we wanted to make a space for all of your “is this a Dyspraxia thing? questions. Things you’ve always wondered about, things that seem oddly difficult, or things you didn’t even think to connect to Dyspraxia until someone else mentioned them. We have gotten tons of these questions all year and we know this isn’t something everyone is interested in but thought a master-list thread might be ideal moving forward!

If you’re not sure where to start:
- What’s something you struggle with that other people seem to find really easy?
- Is there something you do a particular way and wonder if anyone else does too?
- Have you ever been told “that’s just you” but aren’t quite convinced?
- What’s something you wish you could ask another Dyspraxic person about?

Ask away in this thread! Have a look through other people’s questions too, you might have an experience or a tip to share. You don’t need to have advice to respond either, sometimes hearing “I do this too!” is helpful on its own. 💛

Of course, relating to something doesn’t automatically mean it’s caused by Dyspraxia, and we can’t diagnose each other here. But we can share our experiences and hopefully help each other make a little more sense of them! As a mod team we will be replying to some questions with answers as well as populating our most frequent ‘asks’ we’ve received in the chat.

I do it but I don't quite get it and feel like I'm wasting too much water on it, anyone else relate?i always flood the Plattform too.

Hey my son is nearly a UK size 7 . So far throughout school for PE we have managed well with velcro strap football boots. Unfortunately aftwr Size 6 Junior they no longer do velcro pairs. He cannot do laces and finds the slip on one's hard to put on. Especially as they have limoted time to get change at school so less stress is best. He also has wide feet. Any suggestions appreciated. For school shoes he wears loafers. Thanks

About a month ago, I went into town to meet up with some friends and then after that, to meet with another friend somewhere else.

It was fairly busy in the street and busy streets feel like being pelted by fast moving human traffic from all directions. On more narrow streets I’m not sure where to move. When someone comes toward me I just stand to one side and let them pass. If there are a lot of people, I stay out of their way until I see a big gap and feel safe to start walking down the street again. I said goodbye to the last friend and went to buy a few things in the supermarket. I get particularly nervous in supermarkets because I worry about bumping into people or not realising I’m standing in their way. I usually get a supermarket delivery but it’s not always possible to buy everything that way.  

Anyway, it wasn’t all that busy in there. Music was playing and the lights were bright and flickering. Those things don’t normally bother me to be honest, but I was tired and felt slightly nauseous. The colour, sounds and flickering grew more intense and I began to feel even more sick.

I kept shopping and playing my usual game; dodging out of aisles whenever someone else entered them and not walking past people with trolleys. It’s basically a case of constant social distancing because standing far away from people is the only way to be fairly sure I’m not too close to them. Everything was starting to get brighter and louder and echoing more. It was as though nothing was quite real and I was fighting my way out of a dream. I felt lost in space and everything was spinning.  I started walking and not knowing what was going on.

I just caught sight of a worker carrying a large, heavy stack of crates and tried to move out of the way but I’d already got really close.  I suddenly noticed my basket would be in her path but couldn’t move it out of the way quickly enough. I couldn’t feel whether I’d bumped into her. A few seconds later I heard her say something behind me loudly in an angry tone. Or at least I think it was her, it was hard to tell at that point. I was panicked and still in the same bizarre, dreamlike haze. 

I’ve now been taking short breaks when I go out to stop me getting to that point. I had to get out of the shop. I feel like I should have apologised but at the time I couldn’t think or speak and afterwards felt too ashamed and scared to walk back and speak to her. She could have been hurt and if she wasn’t, it was a close shave. Another time she could have been knocked off of her feet.

I’ve traveled freely my whole life but now I’m actually rethinking whether I should be in busy public places like supermarkets at all but there are quieter hours with no music and lower lights, designed to be more accessible for people who find those things hard. Disabled people fought for the right to be in the same places and use the same services as everyone else. I don’t want to encourage the erosion of those rights. I want future generations to feel welcome in public places too.

I just don’t want to hurt someone or put them in danger. I also don’t want to make someone feel disrespected when they’ve already been treated like dirt by customers all day. I really don’t know what to do.

Me and my partner have recently bought a property that needs a bit more work than we anticipated. I always knew diy would be tricky for me but I wanted to try and learn as it’s an invaluable skill to have at least a basic grasp of. So far however, I am finding it impossible. Partner is showing me things many times, for example, how to fit different drill bits, yet I just can’t manage to get the hang of it at all. I don’t think my partner thinks I’m actually dyspraxic, they think it’s ‘perfectionism’ but it’s not about doing it perfect, it’s about being able to do it full stop. finding this whole thing is bringing up a lot of incompetency stuff. Just wondering if anyone has got similar a similar experience or even advice.

I recently looked at my diagnostic records from when I was six and discovered that I had verbal dyspraxia. I also have motor difficulties, particularly with balance and coordination. Do these motor difficulties also fall under dyspraxia, or are they considered a separate condition?
What confuses me is that my school report, which documents my disability, only mentions a language disorder. I asked the teacher who supports me with my disability, and she told me that a language disorder is the same as dyspraxia. However, I’m not sure whether that’s accurate, and I’d like to understand the difference between the two.

I don't use Reddit like ever but I fond this subreddit and thought it was the best place to ask people who suffer the same as I.

Dyspraxia has made my life extremely difficult and torturous, especially as I've grown out of the age where my inability to properly do things can be attributed to being young. There have been so many things I have wanted to do that have taken my years to get even decent at, such as cooking or holding a pencil.

Among the things I have been working extremely hard at is art, namely digital drawing. I feel like I've made tons of improvement in the three years I have been at it, but I also feel like my dyspraxia is holding me back from my true potential. I've been drawing boxes, lines, and cylinders for so long and they still never come out straight or I miss connections. I hardly ever get a line parallel on the first try, cannot accurately transcribe the angles of lines, and have difficulty with getting the scale of things right. I know the fundamentals and all the rules, but in these basic things, I feel lost.

So I am asking if anyone here is an artist with dyspraxia or knows someone who is. And if so, how can I better sharpen my skills in spite of my disability?

This is really important to me as it represents more than art. It is overcoming my weaknesses, getting out of my depressive life fog, and proving to my father I can be an artist.

No matter how hard I try there is no way I can hang out a basket of washing without dropping clothes pegs. There are a natural nemesis - perhaps for everyone though.

Anyone else thought about writing a book about dyspraxia but given up on it?

I’ve pretty much lived my entire life just buying sandwiches from deli’s or eating Chinese takeout, fast food, pizza etc. parents never cooked and dyspraxia/adhd made it super intimidating to ever start nor did I have a reason too.

I moved in with my longtime girlfriend a few months ago and she’s very into cooking. Nothing too crazy but she’s expressed that she wants me to try making stuff for her when she gets home from work.

She uses every plate and hello fresh so I’ve tried to do the most basic dishes from those and for the life of me it’s the hardest thing I’ve ever done. The issue is that I overthink every single minute step and take forever to even get started. For instance, if the first step is heating a drizzle of oil; I have to spend 10 minutes googling how much a drizzle of oil is. Then if the next step is chopping vegetables or whatever produce; I have to spend another 20 minutes YouTubing how to do that. Then I’ll inevitably screw the cutting up anyway and make the pieces completely uneven. Literally just the prep work feels like a monumental chemistry experiment where any wrong move results in failure. Last week I tried making some super basic chicken cutlet and pasta dish and just completely messed up one of the steps and didn’t know how to recover; so she ended up just coming in and having to do it for me while I stood around like an idiot.

I feel bad because at first she’d accuse me of weaponized incompetence so I didn’t have to cook; but she’s gotten to a point where she just doesn’t care anymore and does it herself; but I can clearly tell she’s disappointed and thinks I’m a useless idiot. Even stuff like making a pb&j sandwich I suck at cause the spread is never even and it always looks awful.

Is there any like ultra ultra idiots guide to cooking that’s geared towards small children you’d recommend? And if anyone here has found success after struggling I’d love to hear any useful pointers

Super embarrassing to admit, but I'm 24 years old and can't tie shoes. My parents tried teaching me when I was about 6, and I just couldn't do it.

I tried learning again when I was around 10, and my parents dedicated an entire day to teach me how to tie shoelaces. They got really frustrated with me and I remember I had a huge meltdown. I've still attempted to learn multiple times since then, and there was one time where I actually managed to tie a shoelace once, but never again after that.

Ever since I outgrew Velcro, I've been wearing slip ons. Which is fine with me, but it's still embarrassing to be an adult that can't tie shoelaces when there's 5 year olds out there that can.

I also have a friend that likes to go bowling and always asks me if I want to go, and I always tell her that I'm busy because I don't want to be embarrassed by the fact that I can't tie the laces on the bowling shoes.

I’m just crowd sourcing experiences I think, my son has dyspraxia, quite severely, it affects his ability to write, use cutlery, wash, dress, etc. He’a 14 now and I’m still washing his hair and helping him brush it (it’s long). He’s still wearing Velcro shoes and can’t use cutlery well, among other things like affecting his walking and general coordination, and his ability to retain instructions and follow the steps of a process.

He’s also autistic, and I feel as though school often treat his ASD diagnosis as his primary need, rather than being able to distinguish the issues that are ASD related, those that are Dyspraxia related and those which are affected by both.

Do many people have cross over diagnoses and do you encounter similar problems when trying to access accommodations or support?

Dyspraxia Awareness Week: Two free virtual events I'm taking part in this week

Hi everyone! Hope Dyspraxia Awareness Week is going well for you.

I wanted to share two virtual events I'm involved in this week in case either might be of interest.

1. Dyspraxia Q&A with Toronto Metropolitan University's student Neurodiversity group

I'll be answering students' questions about dyspraxia at this online event organised by the university's student-run Neurodiversity group.

📅 Wednesday, October 14
🕐 12–1 p.m. Toronto time / 5–6 p.m. UK time

You can find out more and register here:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSedRlCrzeoYgrqpePnojjkUpdOApZXuFpdMEWWBCcSPZnOA_g/viewform

2. Dyspraxia and University: Practical Exercises

I'm also taking part in an online event organised by Dyspraxic Me, the charity I serve as a board member for. I'll be guiding participants through practical exercises from my book, Studying With Dyspraxia, published by Bloomsbury, to support their well-being at university.

📅 Friday, October 16
🕖 7 p.m. UK time / 2 p.m. Toronto time

Registration:
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/dyspraxia-and-university-practical-exercises-tickets-2003014320753

Both events are virtual, so you can join from wherever you are, subject to the organisers' registration arrangements.

If you attend either event, I hope you find it useful. Happy Dyspraxia Awareness Week!

What do you mean I have to hold the nail and hammer it?! Oh and hold the thing I'm nailing down still too!

How are we meant to do this? Seriously!

I dread any thing that "Has a knack to it"

Absolute respect to people who make their living out of this

Biggest mistakes at your job that still haunt you to this day?

I feel like I’m gonna mess up and make a fool of myself 😬 Any advice?

Am I even able to lose weight with it as a dyspraxic? I mean I don't get the moves right at all but I do move around alot when I dance. And my heartrate gets up to 140-150 and I sweat.

I (25M) discovered dyspraxia at 22 nearly at the end of my 2D animation studies when suddenly all my struggles weren't "ones everyone had so no need to talk about it", but something that made me a burden in my own field.

No psychomotrician in my city ever diagnosed an adult. It was funny at first but I soon realized that I was kept away of any reeducation possible while my brain was still a sponge, and now what? They talked about ergotherapy to learn how to use some objects i already know how to use, i was very good at compensating so it was no use for my part. I was just given this piece of paper basically saying my future career was over before it even started for something that was inherintely wrong with me and i couldnt do anything about it.
I dont know anyone that has dyspraxia, the only ones i knew were diagnosed during childhood and it didnt impact them in art or even work in general. I wouldnt say mine is "severe" in the slightest but it's just there enough to ruin my life. Everyday, I discover a new thing about myself and how it's related to dyspraxia, how i realize was in fact a struggle and not normal. I am so tired of finding by myself everything that is wrong and having to find myself how I can compensate.

But enough of complaining, is there any things that can help as an adult? I heard it was hard to do anything about it past 16 but I dont really know, any ressources I find online is for children, I just feel abandoned with this diagnosis and no idea of what to do.

I ran across this type of therapy and it claims to develop proprioception, from what I understand.

I am curious if this works for dyspraxics since we have, by definition, fewer connections between the brain and body parts. Or does it claim to grow these connections?

The context I'm thinking about is actually some exercises that were mentioned for eye movements, but it looks like they address all parts of the body.