Dyspraxia

Dyspraxia or DCD (developmental coordination disorder) is a type of neurodivergence commonly associated with clumsiness and difficulty with motor tasks.

In this video I'm explaining what dyspraxia is, what causes it, the diagnostic criteria for dyspraxia and some tips for improving your motor skills.

If you'd like to support me as a creator and help me to keep doing what I do:
Join my YouTube club -
Thank me with a small donation -
Buy my merch -

Follow me on TikTok -
💜Follow me on Twitter -
💜Join me on Facebook -

A little bit about me:
Hi I'm Purple Ella and my family is an autism family with three out of five of us on the autistic spectrum. I also have ADHD and connective tissue disorder (hypermobile Ehlers-danlos syndrome). So life can be a challenge but also a lot of fun.

[EllaTheSmella]

finding out this exists after struggling with tying shoes, riding bike, writing etc. my entire childhood, is a weird kind of relief and upset that noone picked up on it.

[Shaw]

I was so frustrated learning to read, tie my shoes, ride a bike and do things that most kids my age were doing so easily I was bullied a lot. Almost ended my life as a teen.

[akamiguelsanchez]

On my teacher training course, we were tasked with creating a leaflet on a disorder and my group got dyspraxia. I’ve already been diagnosed with ADHD and I remember my specialist did mention she thinks I could also have dyspraxia. I never really looked in to it until now and boy, I think she was on to something!

[emdarki]

Loved the dyspraxia content! I'm diagnosed with it (as well as ADHD and autism) and I love hearing about other people's experiences with it

[tnwcmaps]

I have dispraxia, and a lot of things that you said happened to me. It took me about 3 years to learn how to ride a bike, I was older than usual when I figured it out. I was also in speech therapy for a while as a child, because I simply couldn’t learn to talk right. I can understand the words, I just stutter and have trouble talking without messing up. This still happens, and it’s hard for me to talk sometimes when I’m stressed, because I stutter every few seconds, and also mess up what I’m saying, or accidentally say something completely different. I also do fencing, and in practice, we do something called ladder drills, we basically lay down a ladder and run through it using specific patterns. A lot of the time, when I end up doing it wrong, and someone tries to tell me how to do it right, my brain just can’t convey the information to my legs, and I end up messing up because of it, and I often can’t take in too much information at once.

[EmiFromMars]

Great video Ella! I'm 33 and have pretty severe dyspraxia. Had alot of physio as a child but still effects me every day. What I find difficult is it's not something people really understand or know about so make alot of assumptions about me at times.. thank you soooo much for your video!

[laurabaker]

Great vid as always! I know I have dyspraxia but at 40 with other stuff going on (late diagnosed Autism, late diagnosed EDS etc) at this point in my life I'm going to carry on undiagnosed. I have my ADHD assessment this Sunday 🤞🤞

[aditisiddharth]

Thanks for this video. My son finds it really hard to do things that the kids are expected to learn easily. Which ultimately as an adult don’t really matter as u can just modify those things - like not riding a bike or playing sports that require high coordination or using lace less shoes!but being a kid is hard with school making things harder sometimes!

[daviebevan]

I got a Brain Injury from over forty years ago. I was told twenty odd years ago that I could be dyspraxic.
So many impairments you mention are problems I have on a daily basis.
You are inspirational🙏 thanks

[nathanjw]

Not diagnosed but I think the description of wearing an oven mitt to me is the best description when it comes to autism and coordination issues. I tried to be a flight attendant and the fact that it takes me twice as long I couldn't handle an emergency. Same issue stocking shelves at Walmart I was unable to complete the work because of the time it took me.

Now I work for a bank answering 📞

[keef]

I was diagnosed when I was 9 and since then I’ve had so many problems going through school and now uni that I couldn’t understand. As I was diagnosed young and didn’t get much information on the effects other than being clumsy. Thank you so so much

[scarybabiies]

I just learned of dyspraxia and some of the symptoms sort of align with me, so thank you for the video:))
Some examples include- poor balance (I still have trouble with bike riding and refuse to ride bikes, can’t ice skate or roller skate, etc.), messy hand writing that sometimes I can’t read, I’ve definitely had moments a lot where I’ve been clumsy sometimes even skipping steps and almost falling, and probably a few other things that I can’t put to words at the moment.

[maryhubbart]

I walked like a farmer on freshly plowed ground at 4, my mother said. So she put me in ballet. Loved your comments on that.

[lilyminer]

This was super informative! I’ve been really trying to work through the internalized ableism I’ve had in my head throughout my childhood and teenage years because of my DCD. It’s a tricky condition because it’s less well known so I didn’t exactly understand what I was dealing with before now. Learning about all the different symptoms has really helped me accept the struggles I’ll probably never fully be rid of and stop feeling like I’m just not trying hard enough. Thank you so much for putting this video together!

[Katyestella]

I have dyspraxia symptoms as a 57 year old but I have not been diagnosed as in the 1960's it would contributed to my epilepsy. I have many problems in my life with fine motor skills such as make up, I never learned how to ride a bicycle, etc. It is harder now to get an appointment with a GP. I have a letter that I wrote (typed) with my help of my BATIAS support worker. I also have undiagnosed dyslexia which I have a form to complete to get funding for my dyslexia diagnosis which affects me a lot in my day to day life.

[Monarch_]

My 11yo got formally diagnosed with DCD and ADHD a few yrs back and currently attending therapy - the most challenging part of the condition/s was the severe anxiety she got at school due to the difficulty reaching milestones like other kids (academically speaking)

[camellia]

I found getting a private assessment through a specialist OT from Dyspraxia UK to be extremely helpful- extremely detailed recommendations given. Sadly such detailed profiling is not available on the NHS. There are also dyspraxia support groups.

[ross]

im so glad i found so many other dyspraxic people all of the people who i used to be friends with bullied me when i was diagnosed

[raven]

I'm undiagnosed, but I have all the criteria including the verbal difficulties. I found this greatly helpful. Considering the trauma the autism specialist did to me (I'm guessing because I was in middle age, but I don't know) I'm not going to seek a formal diagnosis for dispraxia.

[stevendurrant]

I’m undiagnosed but see the ADHD as the ‘mother’ condition in my case.

Anyway, I set up a support group for dyspraxia. It’s been do successful - people are falling over themselves to join 🤪