Supporting the Supporter

Its been a while since my last post, I guess that this is mainly due to the return to normality of work, school and family life. I started blogging about a year ago when I had so much to say about my quirky little life and I wonder if this was more about having an outlet to express how I felt as well as acting as a resource for people who had similar experiences.

However this does not mean that my dyspraxia awareness raising mission has gone to ground as well these last few months. In fact it is probably taking a rather large proportion of my spare time. I am a local  coordinator for the Dyspraxia  Foundation, and cover a rather large county which I had not realised until I tried to find venues for us all to meet. Attendance at the meetings was also rather low and trying to cater to everyone's needs has not been easy. Another  coordinator then advised me that I could not be everything to everyone so I found a nice little local room and our recent meeting was much easier without worrying about parking, big events being in the same park and knowing how many children's play areas are in the same venue!

I also  had the wonderful opportunity to present a workshop to parents about Dyspraxia at a special needs fayre last month and this brought home to me how  misunderstood the condition is. One parent stated that a school that specialised in teaching children with dyspraxia actually asked her what it was!! Other schools have also been known to exclude children because they are too "dyspraxic", this happened to the boy when we looked.

I enjoy these opportunities that I am given to discuss dyspraxia because these are my times to talk about the challenges that I have been presented with too. When the boy was younger, there was another coordinator trying to run a group and I admit that I never attended either. It is difficult when you have children's needs to consider and bearing in mind that a major challenge is social anxiety, barriers to attend a group are massive before you have even left the front door!  I knew of a few families in a similar situation to me and I would really use those times that we met to really saturate the moment with a good hearty discussion. Those times were rare and day to day life was just too busy to have the energy to access support. Facebook wasn't even in my life then, so it was at times isolating when we were going through a rough patch. Another factor was when there were positive times, I wondered if I had made it all up and was maybe expecting too much, in essence denying that the Dyspraxia existed until it invaded our lives again.

 I can see the sense of relief of finding one's tribe when I organise these meetings or present to a room full of parents. Tips on managing various sensory aspects, accessing professionals and talking to teachers are all shared and gratefully received. That sense of belonging, when the difficulties that hand dryers present or the amazing sense of humour are talked about is priceless.

 It is easier to access support these days thanks to social media, through this there are no pressures to bring children and thus you can make the most of being able to process the support that is offered at a time convenient to you. Adults who continue to experience anxiety about meeting people can also gain from this. I also share resources on the Facebook page for this blog, in a bid to continue raising awareness and reduce that sense of isolation that I experienced in those early days.

 I still hope that my little group will continue and be a welcoming place to share experiences. I also plan to connect with local professions because if there is a way that I can enable better understanding of the people they encounter then that has to be worth striving for. As for me, well there is a National Autistic Society group ( the boy also has this) down the road from me that meets every two weeks, so maybe I will access my support from them. As always I know that I will also continue to benefit from my local group as well. We have a few adults now and it is these people I look to for advice how to foster independence in the boy so that he can continue to feel confident about engaging with the outside world and beyond education. Even though life is on an even keel at the moment, it will certainly be valuable to celebrate the positives and look forward to the future with my tribe.

xx