Dyspraxia

Did you know that Daniel Ratcliffe (Harry Potter) has dyspraxia? He admitted that back in 2008, but I hadn't read this about him until now.

When I had my stroke in 2014, I was told I had aphasia – a problem with my language. It took me a long time to understand that, and two and a half years later I am still working through it. Sometimes it seems like it's my 'new' life. I was at PA Hospital for my surgery, and I was kept in BIRU (Brain Injury Rehabilitation Unit) because of my stroke, for six and a half weeks working with the speech pathologist. After discharge I moved up to the Redcliffe area and went to the CBRT who also provided me with a speech pathologist. Recently, looking through my old papers, I found the report that CBRT had written about me two years ago. Even though I had read it earlier, I only now saw the word “dyspraxia”, which related to my brain injury.

I started to look up information about this condition. One website, Listen and Learn, said this about it:

“Dyspraxia, like many developmental disorders, is neurological in origin – that is, it has its basis in the brain. The brain is a network of neural connections that allow us to process the information we receive. Dyspraxia is a result of weak or disorganized connections in the brain, which then translates to difficulties with motor coordination.”

I knew that all of my problems were to do with what had happened in my brain, but how can I continue to “recover” from them? Listen and Learn has a fairly long article of information of dyspraxia. Read it, if you can, because I think you might understand a lot more of it than I do! However, there are problems with Listen and Learn and other websites – dyspraxia is recognised as a problem with children.

I'm not a child, so I researched websites which would talk about how this affected adults. I found a few. In 2012 an article written by Maxine Frances Roper in The Guardian told about how she had suffered dyspraxia.

“Dealing with dyspraxia has been a practical and emotional challenge for me in different ways throughout my life. Unlike celebrities Daniel Radcliffe and Florence Welch I wasn't diagnosed as a child and went through years of sporadic speculation that something was wrong without knowing what.”

According to Roper, 2-6% of the population will suffer this, and 70% of those people are male. (Aus statement. The Telegraph in UK said that over there up to 10% suffer, and males are 4 times affected as women.)

The Health Direct in Victoria said:

“Dyspraxia is a disorder of movement and coordination that is often identified in early childhood. It can also come on later in life after an illness or an injury. Dyspraxia can affect verbal, oral and motor skills. While it cannot be cured, regular therapy can help improve the disorder.”

The first mention I found about the result of stroke was on Brain Foundation, with whom I had followed ever since my stroke. I wouldn't have looked dyspraxia up if I hadn't had it mentioned to me. BF said that dyspraxia:

“... can result from acute damage to the brain (as might be caused by a head injury or stroke)...”

and acknowledged that:

“[t]he outlook for people with dyspraxia depends on the severity of the disorder, its cause and the availability of early intervention. People with dyspraxia may be able to learn the skills necessary to circumvent their difficulties and lead normal, productive lives.”

Mine, according to the CBRT report, is somewhere around moderate, relates to speech, and can increase when phonemic sequence increases. I have only very recently understood it. Recovery from my aphasia is being able to talk, and from my dyspraxia is understanding what I am saying or reading. I feel pretty good most mornings, that it (usually) only seems to be the worst when I am very tired. Unfortunately, I get very tired in the early afternoon. And, unfortunately, there doesn't appear to be any organisation which treats dyspraxia in adults.

On the CBRT report the speech pathologist said I had been given a “Home Exercise Program (HEP). It's two years after I was apparently given that, and these days I can't find anything that seems to use those words. I can't even remember what was on it/in it, what it would have done to help me, and why I was supposed to be using it myself. I don't really think that CBRT would even answer my question – not that they're a bad team – they were really very good – but it's two years after I had the report, two years after I “finished” with them, and more than two years since I've been on my own.

Like far too many other people, I live alone looking after myself with aphasia and dyspraxia (I don't personally know others who do that, but I'm sure they exist). The article from Maxine Frances Roper sounded very much like me. She said:

“Typically for a female, I was labelled odd rather than disruptive, and tried to hide my weaknesses and play to my strengths... Hero-worshipping other people was a way of taking the spotlight off my own weaknesses and winning approval.”

Roper succeeded in her own life with writing. Writing is my life. It has to work for me.