As I have written about in my article, "The Dyspraxia Enigma: Dissecting the Awareness Gap," dyspraxia, also known as developmental coordination disorder (DCD), remains one of the least well-known and least understood of the divergent neurotypes. If you know the first thing about it, you know that its key defining characteristic is impaired psychomotor and equilibrium functioning. In other words, it impacts how well a person can maintain bodily balance and stability, as well as how masterfully and efficiently one can carry out and execute physical movements such as walking, running, playing sports, or working with one’s hands. But it is so much more than that. In this post, I aim to highlight some of the lesser-known impacts of dyspraxia and clarify misconceptions related to this neurodivergence.

1. It’s More Than Just Impaired Coordination and Equilibrium: While dyspraxia is most commonly associated with psychomotor impairment, it encompasses much more. Below is a list of other impairments and functional impacts associated with dyspraxia:

• Overall organization and planning ability: For example, planning and following through with the sequence of steps involved in preparing a meal or organizing household items.

• Navigation: Understanding one’s location in the environment and planning routes.

• Numeracy and Mathematics Difficulties: This can manifest as difficulties with academic math classes, as well as with practical, daily activities such as managing personal finances.

• Reading Speed: Slower reading speed, which can adversely impact learning, critical thinking, and imagination if not recognized at a sufficiently early point in a person’s life.

• Energy Levels: Because having dyspraxia means having to exert more mental and physical effort to perform many basic life activities, our energy reserves become more depleted, which may further impact our ability to meet basic life demands.

• Emotions: The daily struggles and frustrations we encounter, along with misunderstandings from others, can cause anxiety, depression, and often lead to social withdrawal and anger outbursts.

• Sensory Sensitivities: We may be either over-sensitive or under-sensitive to certain physical sensations, most notably temperature. Many people with dyspraxia often exhibit extreme temperature preferences or a very narrow temperature comfort zone, likely due to impairments in thermoregulation. Some individuals with dyspraxia can be sensitive to certain clothing textures, such as wool, which may feel too scratchy or heavy. One of the reasons I dislike winter so much is that it requires wearing thick, heavy clothing, which to me feels intolerably cumbersome and restrictive.

• Physical Health Issues: Individuals with dyspraxia frequently experience digestive problems, such as gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) (Lino, F, et al., 2022). I personally must steer clear of most fried foods. Additionally, many carbonated drinks, except for beer or seltzer water, are a “big no-no” for me. I also need to avoid highly acidic foods and be cautious with certain spice and fat combinations—especially involving seed oils. Dyspraxic people are also more prone to cardiovascular disease and arthritis than the general population.

2. Motor Impairments Impact More Than Just Athletics and Performance Arts. They may also impact many mundane aspects of life.

• Social Interaction may be affected; For example, body language and physical expressions may be impacted in a way that can convey the wrong impression to others. We may also struggle with the pace and timing of social interactions, such as participating in larger group conversations.

• Ambulating through various physical spaces: For example, I must be extremely careful when climbing and especially descending stairs if that is the only option available. I’m prone to missing a step, losing my footing, and falling if I don’t exercise caution. Going downstairs is more challenging for me than climbing upstairs, though the latter can also be problematic. Many people with dyspraxia experience some level of difficulty with stairs, and this is often not related to low physical strength or stamina. Instead, it’s due to impaired depth perception, motor timing, and sequencing related to foot placement when going up or down stairs. On most natural or paved slopes, I have no trouble walking up or down at all. Some individuals with dyspraxia may even bump into objects, stumble more easily over ground irregularities, or need features like walk-in showers with grab bars, even relatively early in life. I don’t experience those kinds of difficulties. Again, my main issues with buildings involve stairs and sometimes feeling claustrophobic in small spaces.

3. Dyspraxia is more prevalent than one might realize:

   Dyspraxia is estimated to affect 5%-6% of the population, making it as common as dyslexia or ADHD, both of which are highly comorbid with dyspraxia (Lino, F, et.al, 2022). Yet a highly problematic awareness gap persists.

4. It’s highly varied in its presentation:

Some individuals with dyspraxia may have more significant fine motor impairment compared to gross motor impairment, and vice versa. Some of us may have relatively mild or minimal cognitive impairment, but instead have more of the psychomotor impairments. It’s quite a mosaic. Some of us may even become athletically adept in certain domains if accorded patience, understanding, and allowed to learn at our own pace.

Some dyspraxic people learn to drive okay, but could never imagine walking or cycling the vast distances that I do, given my inability to drive. Some can’t do either and might prefer to use public transportation.

It almost seems as if there are an endless number of ways dyspraxia can show up in different individuals.

5. We’re working several times as hard to accomplish the same things as others:

This almost goes without saying. The combination of motor and cognitive impairments typical of dyspraxia means that more effort and energy are needed to do many tasks that others accomplish with little to no effort. Therefore, we may require more breaks, rest, and time to recharge, as well as more alone time, to prevent burnout and fatigue. In other words, we are not lazy, and our need for solitude is not a reflection of our feelings toward you.

6. It is lifelong. In other words, you don’t “outgrow” it.

It was once widely believed that “clumsy children” would eventually catch up to their peers, and some people still hold this view. However it is patently false.

7. It can’t be “cured”

In fact, I think that the occupational therapy (OT) often administered to dyspraxic children in schools needs to be reevaluated. Based on my own experience and what I frequently hear from other dyspraxics, I am skeptical that OT really improves motor function overall and that any perceived improvements that might be observed in a dyspraxic child during occupational therapy are simply practice effects specific to the therapeutic exercises administered during OT sessions. For example, any child, whether dyspraxic or not, can improve their ability to walk across a balance beam relative to their baseline by practicing the activity often enough. But will that translate to improvements in the child’s ability to skip rope during recess without tripping and falling over the rope? I highly doubt it.

I have had people give me totally tone deaf and thoughtless suggestions that I should consider taking up Yoga, Tai Chi, or perhaps Pilates to address my dyspraxia. I’m sure that a person with dyspraxia who takes up those exercises may enjoy many of the general benefits that come with them, such as improved muscular strength and endurance. But again, it won’t cure the impairment.

Some researchers have opined that because there are so many different areas of the brain involved with dyspraxia, it makes it impossible to develop an actual cure for it (Meachan 2017). As with so many neurodivergences, it is simply best for society to accommodate and support it.

While I have mentioned some of the adverse impacts that dyspraxia can entail, it is critical to bear in mind that it also comes with many gifts. Many dyspraxic people are described as highly empathetic and intuitive. We are also big-picture, out-of-the-box thinkers and can develop novel solutions to many problems. Understanding and embracing neurodivergence means being able to hold space for complexity and nuance.

Below is a link to my book, Disrupted Pathways: A Dyspraxic Odyssey. This is my memoir about growing up with late-diagnosed and previously misdiagnosed dyspraxia, and it is written in a way that hopefully illuminates wider sociological factors that can impact the experience of Neurodivergence. Please click the link below if you’re interested:

https://books2read.com/u/4NEyLY

Works Cited:

American Psychiatric Association (2013). Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (5th edition). American Psychiatric Publishing

Fagan, A. (2025). Why Dyspraxia is Often Misunderstood. Psychology Today, Neurodiversity Blog. https://www,psychologytoday.com. Accessed: 9/27/2025

Lino. F, &Chieffo, DPR (2022). Developmental Coordination Disorder and Most Persistent Comorbidities: A Narrative Review of Children, 9(7) 1095

Meachan. E.J. (2017) An Investigation of Dyspraxia: What We Know And Why The Research is So Far Behind. STARR (7) 147-152