Do You Struggle With Co-Ordination ?

[Graelwyn]

Even after getting my diagnosis, I still struggle to not feel myself to be just clumsy and stupid at times.
I knock into things, drop things and well, let's just say that I find boxing classes very challenging as I have to see things being done before I can do them, and rapid sequences of different punches seem to totally throw me off and I end up messing up...

Is this really an issue with the Asperger's ? I don't understand why my brain cannot process things like this the same as everyone else who seems to manage just fine. It makes me feel slow. 

[Al Swearegen]

All my life. As a child I was horribly uncoordinated. I always felt like my feet and hands were longer than what they were and that I was off balance.
I ended up improving by doing gymnastics and later martial arts.
Still there is an amount of lack of spacial awareness and I am given to shambling and misjudging doorframes, chairs, tables and such.

[Walkie]

Definitely.  Loads of us have this issue. It's called Dyspraxia, and it's listed as a "common-co-morbity"  with Asperger's. I prefer not to use the term co-morbidity, because I feel that over-medicalises  Asperger's, which i view as a valuable neurological difference, not a disease. And besides, I'm not morbid

Still, these co-whatevers are real enough and common enough , and they've been discussed here there and everywhere on the forum. If I stumble on some links, I'll post them.

Clumsy does not equal stupid.  Or to put it another way: are you calling me stupid? huh? huh?

-Walkie


(Btw, you only need one more post to qualify as an Elder. We are waiting with baited breath)

[Graelwyn]

Nah, I don't see others with the same issues as stupid... just me.
I mean, I got back from that class and cried as I hate having to be told repeatedly how to do things.
It's like my brain can't process the moves fast enough and if it does, my body doesn't obey the right order.

I don't know I have really fully accepted that I have Asperger's because it took so long for a diagnosis.
I mean, like, my mother wont even accept I have it really. And I think, well how is it I could go through my entire childhood, and no-one picked up on it?
By proxy, it is still automatic to blame anything I have difficulty with, on my being stupid.

Didn't know I was close to being an elder here  Only taken about 10 years.

[Icequeen]

I trip over my own feet, I avoid buying breakable glassware, I'll slam my own hand in the car door because I'm just not paying attention, run into door frames, about knocked myself unconscious one day smacking my head off the door frame of the car (this is why I don't like to drive a different car, I forget how low the doors are getting out).

I am forever cutting or bruising myself, and I don't even remember how I did it most days because I am forever running into stuff.

I was the kid in school couldn't catch anything and got hit in the face with the ball and sat the rest of gym class out on the bleachers every damn time. Never played sports because of it.

I'm good with tools though, I can take anything apart, can't walk and chew gum...but I can fix stuff.

Don't worry about it Graelwyn, you've got lots of company. Focus on the good stuff.

[Graelwyn]

I trip over my own feet, I avoid buying breakable glassware, I'll slam my own hand in the car door because I'm just not paying attention, run into door frames, about knocked myself unconscious one day smacking my head off the door frame of the car (this is why I don't like to drive a different car, I forget how low the doors are getting out).

I am forever cutting or bruising myself, and I don't even remember how I did it most days because I am forever running into stuff.

I was the kid in school couldn't catch anything and got hit in the face with the ball and sat the rest of gym class out on the bleachers every damn time. Never played sports because of it.

I'm good with tools though, I can take anything apart, can't walk and chew gum...but I can fix stuff.

Don't worry about it Graelwyn, you've got lots of company. Focus on the good stuff.

I used to frequently bang my head on an overhead cupboard when I stood up after bending down to get something out of a lower down cupboard... it took ages for me to start remembering it was there and take evasive action.

I had that experience in sports at school... I was always the last chosen for teams and hated hockey with a passion as the other girls would deliberately whack my shins with their sticks.
I wish I was good with tools, but nope...good with words and with a camera lens, but I was never that technically minded.
In terms of good stuff... I struggle most times to find the good stuff  if I could, I could then balance out the bad stuff.

[renaeden]

Part of why I was diagnosed so late I think was my vision. I had 6 eye operations by the time I was 5 and they still didn't correct things. As a result, I have no depth perception and my left eye is very weak.

The worst sport for me in school was volleyball. I couldn't even serve over the net. After much ridicule and shame I refused to participate and thus failed the class. Ironically, my sister loves volleyball and plays other teams throughout the state.

I'm one for dropping things a lot and I get really frustrated with myself. I mean, how hard is it to hold on to something? Argh.

[odeon]

Basketball was even worse than volleyball, for me.

[Parts]

I did a lot when I was young. I even had special ed services back in the 70s in part because I could hardly write do to poor hand eye coordination.  They had me do special hand and writing exercises for what seemed like ages it worked to a point but I hated it.  When I was 15 I was obsessed with learning  to  juggle,  first with balls then pins.  It took what seemed like forever with sometimes three or four hours a day of practice but eventually I got it.  After that it was walking on stilts with the same rigorous practice.   All the practicing really helped a lot not just with those tasks but my overall coordination though I still have my moments.     

[Graelwyn]

I did a lot when I was young. I even had special ed services back in the 70s in part because I could hardly write do to poor hand eye coordination.  They had me do special hand and writing exercises for what seemed like ages it worked to a point but I hated it.  When I was 15 I was obsessed with learning  to  juggle,  first with balls then pins.  It took what seemed like forever with sometimes three or four hours a day of practice but eventually I got it.  After that it was walking on stilts with the same rigorous practice.   All the practicing really helped a lot not just with those tasks but my overall coordination though I still have my moments.   

Interesting. I used to do firestaff but never got into juggling. My ex, on the other hand, who is also on the spectrum, has done stilt walking, fire poi, fire eating, fire breathing etc... even started his own circus skills group to teach it and they did some paid shows. I think one of his tutors suggested he do something he has never done and so that is what he did.

[odeon]

See, Graelwyn, all you have to do to fix this is to learn how to juggle.

[Graelwyn]

See, Graelwyn, all you have to do to fix this is to learn how to juggle.

They are more likely to turn into deadly weapons with me throwing em 

[Al Swearegen]

If it helps Graewyn, I have a high pain threshold too and combining these two things and a bad gait, as a child I personified "oaf". You are not an island here you know.

[Graelwyn]

If it helps Graewyn, I have a high pain threshold too and combining these two things and a bad gait, as a child I personified "oaf". You are not an island here you know.

Yeah. Even now my mother tells me to watch my bags of we go on a shop with anything breakable. I used to be told I was like a bull in a china shop.  I know I am not an island. It is good to know others have the same issues. The psych did say I have dyspraxia too.

[MLA]

yup