Reframing Dyspraxia With Kerry, Rosie and Pheobe

Over the weekend, I (Rosie) Skyped Kerry Pace from Diverse Learners and her daughter, Phoebe, about our joint blog for Dyspraxia Awareness Week. The focus of this joint blog is the strengths of dyspraxia, such as:

→ Emotional Intelligence

→ Resilience

→ Determination

→ Enthusiasm

We want to emphasise that people can change the language they use when speaking to us about what we find challenging. The language you use will genuinely make people feel a little more positive about themselves, thus boosting self-esteem and confidence.

As always with all of our blogs, it’s important to remember that no two people with dyspraxia are affected in the same way. We all have unique profiles of strengths and weaknesses (or areas of improvement, as Kerry likes to call them).

Created by Rosie in the Chloe Spicer / Dyspraxic Me  workshop - the original negative comment opposite the same comment but reframed in a positive light

On Saturday, a workshop for fellow dyspraxics, Dyspraxic Me, was held by Jessica Starns and Chloe Spicer as part of Dyspraxia Awareness Week. The workshop encouraged participants to write a negative “comment” about our dyspraxia on a card. Then we had to reframe the “comment” positively.

There were so many amazing ideas, some of which highlighted the social and emotional aspects associated with dyspraxia, for example, being perceived as overenthusiastic, hypersensitive, and too emotional.

At the workshop, I (Rosie) addressed the negative comment by reframing my quiet, sensitive, and passionate nature as a sign of high emotional intelligence.

This emotional intelligence means being a good listener, a passionate person who cares about what they believe in and someone who cares and understands others.

Phoebe was awarded the resilience prize for completing her A-levels despite her anxiety

One thing I love about speaking with Kerry is she’s just as passionate as I am (always good to know you’re not the only one who gets into the things you love).

It’s about changing those negative assumptions and turning them into more positive ones.

Resilience and determination are also strengths for many people with dyspraxia – the ability to keep going, keep trying, and never give up. During the Skype chat, we discussed and shared examples of our resilience and determination.

Rosie completed a 10k run in the summer

We then chatted about the little accomplishments, which may not mean much to some people.

However, as we constantly try to find different ways to complete tasks and practice many times to master them, those little things are big achievements and show a lot of determination and strength.

There is more detailed advice in Kerry’s article, My Personal Experiences of Dyspraxia: Management strategies and resources for all here (see page 72).

To finish, we thought of the song by Tubthumping– I get knocked down (and get back up again) – as a way to describe some of the positives of dyspraxia; we literally get knocked down or fall down, but get back up again, dust ourselves off with a few extra scrapes and bruises later, and keep going in life.