Navigating Neurodiversity: Dyspraxia & Me | by Sienna Rothery | Medium
I spent the first 20 of my 22 years, or 90% of my life, not knowing that I had a learning disability. It wasn’t until I’d finished my first year at Oxford University, bewildered and frustrated by my inability to finish an exam, hold a pen correctly, focus or even think in an exam room with 50 other students, when I was finally told I had dyspraxia with ADHD symptoms, and I almost cried with relief when I found out. It took some coming to terms with, but getting diagnosed turned out to be one of the best things that ever happened to me. Developmental Co-ordination Disorder, or dyspraxia, is a neurological disorder affecting signals sent from the brain to the body, leading to an immaturity of motor skills, issues with planning and sequencing, sensitivity to external stimuli, and language impairments. Up to 50% of dyspraxics also experience ADHD, a neurodevelopmental disorder characterised by inattentiveness, and problems with information processing and short-term memory. It’s an invisibl