Writing characters with dyspraxia
I'm Phorus, and this guide is supposed to be a short primer on how to write dyspraxic characters. My qualifications: I'm a diagnosed dyspraxic and have been my whole life.
Note on terminology: I'm American, so I use American terms in this post. I've included definitions for things that might cause confusion.
A learning disability refers to a disorder that makes some part of learning harder for you. These are things like dyslexia, dyscalculia, etc. In the UK, I believe they're called learning difficulties.
An intellectual disability is a disability that affects overall intelligence and adaptive functioning. These are called (general) learning disabilities in the UK. Confusing, right?
I also use the terms physical therapist and occupational therapist a lot.
A physical therapist is concerned with strengthening your physical skills. They focus mostly on gross motor skills like walking, running, jumping, etc.
An occupational therapist is more likely to help with fine motor skills like writing, eating, etc, as well as helping you find ways to accomplish ADLs (activities of daily living) and iADLs (instrumental activities of daily living).
What is it? (A simple explanation of dyspraxia)
Dyspraxia is a neurodevelopmental disorder and learning disability characterized by poor coordination and proprioception. It's also called developmental coordination disorder (DCD).
In simpler terms, it's a condition that means the person has trouble controlling and being aware of their body.
Dyspraxia can look like a lot of different things for different people. In general, it will look like clumsiness or awkwardness with tasks involving motor skills and planning.
What is it like? (A more detailed explanation of dyspraxia)
For me, I always have little gears ticking in the back of my mind when I do a familiar and simple motion, like grabbing a cup, but I don't actively think about it because I'm very used to it. For complex things, like wrapping a present or tying a knot, I have to actively think about what I need to do. I have trouble doing them if I'm also trying to pay attention to something else, like if I'm talking to someone.
It will take us longer than most people to learn new activities if they require movements we're not used to. Even with a lot of effort, our symptoms won't disappear. They're especially apparent when we're tired or distracted. In fact, moving and doing tasks can be draining because of the effort put into planning and executing the movements.
Some traits your character might show:
a weird or awkward gait (way of walking)
frequently dropping things
tripping and stumbling often
mixing up their left and right sides (example: asked to raise their right hand, they raise their left)
not being able to keep their balance when they can't see
looking at a body part they want to move, having trouble moving it when they can't see it
being unaware of their body
being a messy eater/spilling their food and drink often
You might be able to tell from the list, but we're prone to all sorts of injuries! We might not even realize we got injured until we notice a scratch or bruise later and puzzle over how we got it. The way your character reacts to getting hurt can tell us a lot about them. Are they extra cautious? Do they have a family member or friend who is? Or maybe your character is used to it and doesn't care much. Lots of stuff to think about.
Another thing to think about is speech! Not every dyspraxic has trouble talking, but plenty do. Speech, physically, is a series of complex and specific muscle movements. It's not surprising that dyspraxia could impact this!
In fact, a common cause of speech impediments is developmental verbal dyspraxia, also called childhood apraxia of speech. People can have this with or without dyspraxia/DCD.
I'm often hard to understand, or sound "off" when I speak. I'm aware of it sometimes, other times I'm not. Like other movements, it gets worse when I'm tired or distracted. Maybe your character is frustrated by this, or maybe they use their speech ability as an indicator of their social battery. Do they prefer texting over phone calls? Do they have a family member who can always understand them? My mom translates for me sometimes! Another character being able to understand their speech can demonstrate a long history and close relationship.
Is there a cure? (Management/treatment)
The treatment for it is really just practice, practice, practice! This can be actual physical/occupational therapy, or it can just be doing things over and over again. If your character is in a position where they would be diagnosed and have access to healthcare, it's not unlikely they might have some experience with physical or occupational therapy, especially if their disability is more severe. If your character has trouble speaking, they might go to speech therapy. Where I am (USA) speech therapy is often done in school.
Most people will have figured out ways to adapt things they have trouble with. Sometimes these are having adaptive items, like sneakers without laces, eating utensils with bigger handles, or just buying clothing without buttons or zippers. A lot of it can be DIY-ed too, just ask any occupational therapist, lol. Self-cling sports wrap is used a lot to make things like pencils thicker and easier to grip. Be creative! Especially if your setting is a fantastical one. I'd love to see wizards with wands specifically made to be easy to hold, or witches that invent spill-proof potion bottles. Maybe your character is a tech genius who invents specialized controls for their spaceship that are extra large or spaced out! Have fun with it!
When we don’t have a specialized item, we usually find a different way to do a task. When I have to insert my debit card into a chip reader, I often use one hand to hold the card and the other one to steady my arm. I use my full body to get out of my car, pushing with both my feet and upper body. Maybe your wizard character has trouble using their hand to trace runes in the air, and they use their whole arm. Maybe your badass warrior has a specific way of fighting that simplifies complex movements. They might just do something more slowly, especially writing. It takes me a long time to write something neatly.
Sometimes we can't do a task on our own, and we have to ask other people for help. I can't tie a swimsuit top behind my neck, I have to have my mom do it for me. Whether or not your character actually asks for help is up to you. Maybe they just avoid things they can't do. I'm guilty of that from time to time.
When it comes to getting around, some people do use mobility aids. Canes are probably some of the most common mobility aids used for dyspraxia because their main purpose is to help with balance. People who are extremely prone to falling could use a wheelchair, either manual or powered, and people with very severe dyspraxia and/or comorbid conditions that make moving incredibly difficult or impossible might benefit from a wheelchair pushed by a carer— but keep in mind your character’s financial and healthcare status. Insurance is pretty picky about covering a wheelchair, and they’re quite expensive especially if you need a custom one. Most dyspraxia isn’t severe enough to the point of qualifying for wheelchair coverage.
How do you feel about it? (Character’s attitudes towards disability)
There’s a lot of ways that your character could feel about their disability. Maybe they’re proud of the ways they adapt and get through life. Maybe they’re neutral and don’t feel any way about it because it’s just how they’ve always lived. I would love to see either of these, personally, because a lot of disability in fiction is treated as something inherently negative.
Can your character feel negatively about their disability? Well, yes, but be careful. While there are real people who dislike their dyspraxia, portraying this in fiction as an author who doesn’t have dyspraxia is a bit iffy. There’s a lot of disability as something life ruining narratives out there and they’re not great. Most of us can go about our lives pretty well, even if it looks different from how the average person does. I would err away from characters being aggressively bitter or jealous of abled people. Getting frustrated with something is a very common experience, however, and it would be accurate to portray that in your writing. I would also include frustration about things being inaccessible for them. Maybe your character gets annoyed by small zippers on clothing, or their friends inviting them to outings that involve new activities so they feel left behind, or the buttons on their phone being too small and too close together.
Some people (myself included) do make jokes about our disability. We might drop something over and over again and laugh and say “only me!” or we might joke about how bad our handwriting is. That doesn’t mean your character should be okay with being made fun of, or that dyspraxia should be a source of comic relief. If someone I didn’t know made fun of the way I walked, I’d be pretty pissed!
If your character has problems with speech then they might get frustrated by people not understanding them. They might avoid speaking or feel embarrassed by the way they talk, especially if they’ve been made fun of for it in the paste. This is a very real experience, but I would also love to see characters who have speech impediments that don’t care and love to talk. Especially if they never get made fun of in the story!
Though, something else to note: sometimes your character might not know they have dyspraxia. I’d been diagnosed when I was very young, but I didn’t find out myself until I was 18 and going through my medical history. If your character doesn’t know they’re dyspraxic, they might get more frustrated because they don’t have a reason for why things are difficult for them (I felt like this often!). They might just write off their symptoms as being exceptionally clumsy and absent minded. If they find out there’s a name/reason for the way they are, there are many ways they might react. My reaction was mostly “oh, that makes a lot of sense.” But maybe your character is shocked at first before realizing that their experiences line up with the diagnosis. Or maybe your character is angry because they wish they’d known sooner. There are lots of possibilities.
What can they do? (Stuff dyspraxia limits)
Dyspraxia will limit your character, of course. They’ll probably struggle at least a little bit with things that require a lot of coordination, like sports, or fine motor skills, like crocheting. Decide how severe your character’s disability is, what specific things your character struggles with, and what things they don’t. Maybe your character has really poor gross motor skills and time management, but they have decent fine motor skills. A different character might struggle with both gross and fine motor skills, but is great at organization and speaking. The first probably won’t have a job as a professional athlete or a physical laborer, but they might be okay at a job as a receptionist, and the second might not make an amazing seamstress, but they might be a great teacher. That doesn’t mean they can’t do stuff that involves their weak skills— there will be things they can’t do, but there are other things they might love! In fact, having hobbies like that are a great way to practice and promote better coordination and dexterity. And that doesn’t mean they’ll be great at it. I rowed for four years, and I loved it, but I was not good at it. It’s totally okay for your character to be mediocre or even bad at their hobbies. It’s something I’d love to see, actually! There are also ways to adapt a lot of things. There are all sorts of adaptive sports, there’s tools to make crochet hooks easier to hold, and lots of creative and innovative people out there.
Another thing to consider is that dyspraxia is often accompanied by other disorders. ADHD and autism are especially common, as are other learning disabilities. It's also really common for it to be a part of intellectual disability. There's also fetal alcohol spectrum disorders and hypotonia (low muscle tone) among others. I'm not sure if I've ever met a dyspraxic who didn't have something else going on too. Not they they aren't out there, but my experience is mostly with people who have it in combination with something else. Even if they just have dyspraxia, your character will likely have problems with working memory, which is stuff like remembering instructions, managing time and deadlines, keeping track of things. I don’t know why this is part of it, but it is.
If you decide to give your character another disability, please do research on that too! You can even give them disabilities unrelated to dyspraxia! That would be awesome!
What shouldn’t I do? (Things to avoid writing dyspraxic characters)
There’s honestly not a lot of dyspraxic characters out there. I don’t think I could even name one. The closest we have are characters that are really clumsy as comic relief. So one thing I would avoid doing is not making it clear. You don’t have to use the word dyspraxia or DCD, but maybe your character mentions that they’ve always struggled with making their body do what they tell it to, or they could even use more poetic words, like “moving has always felt like a game of telephone to me” or something like that. Also avoid simplifying it as just clumsiness— it’s a lot more than that! It’s a disability: your character should be disabled by it. Don’t have your character get “cured.” They can gain skills over the story, of course, but they shouldn’t end the story as an abled person.
What should I do? (Things I’d like to see with dyspraxic characters)
Give your character unique ways of doing things.
Make your character be a badass!
Have your character’s friends be patient with them.
Acknowledge your characters limits. Maybe the group goes out bowling, and they know they aren’t able to bowl like everyone else, so they use a two handed approach, or they sit out and make jokes while people play. It’s okay for your character to be disabled by their disability!
Give your character small, barely noticeable habits. I’ll give a few examples!
Never wearing white because they know they’ll spill something on it.
Always having napkins in their purse for the same reason.
Enunciating their words just a bit too much to compensate for a speech impediment.
Always having small scrapes and bruises.
Not having any breakable dishware in their home.
A lot of physical activities provide proprioceptive input that people with dyspraxia often lack, so I’d love to see that represented in a character. A love of organized sports, climbing, and all sorts of other things. (Personally, I love roller coasters and things like that! It makes me aware of my body in a really novel way.)
Have a character whose experiences end up helping them— maybe they get hurt really often and know a lot of first aid! Maybe they learned something in speech therapy that lets them pick up on the way someone talks, and they figure out a clue to a mystery! Maybe their notes get stolen by the enemy, but their handwriting is indecipherable to anyone but them.
Give cool, popular characters dyspraxia.
Give smart, clever characters dyspraxia.
Give serious, no-nonsense characters dyspraxia.
Let your character fail at things.
Let your character succeed at things.
Have multiple dyspraxic characters! It’s not rare by any means.
I hope this gives you a jumping off point for writing a character with dyspraxia. There’s tons of us out there and not a whole lot of us portrayed in fiction. It’s okay if you mess up! Listen to us and try your best. An earnest representation means a lot even if it’s not perfect!
And please remember that I am just one person with dyspraxia. There are tons of different experiences out there, and I encourage you to read more about dyspraxia and disability in general. If any other dyspraxic people want to add on, I’d love to hear your thoughts!
Thank you for taking the time to read this!
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