I don't want to overstep but I genuinely have a question about when neurodevelopmental disorders creep into physical disability.
I have dyspraxia. I was diagnosed with it 3 years before I even got my autism diagnosis. For those who don't know, dyspraxia, also known as childhood coordination disorder, affects one's coordination, proprioception, and fine motor skills.
Dyspraxics can often have difficulties with other things that people with motor disorders struggle with - walking, writing, buttoning clothes, driving, using cutlery, etc. All of these are physical manifestations of a neurodevelopmental disorder - dyspraxia is not considered a neurological disorder (which are often considered physical disabilities,) but a neurodevelopmental disorder. My coordination was clinically under where it was supposed to be. I was delayed in crawling, sucking on a straw, walking, and a few more missed milestones that I forget (oops). Usually these missed milestones are attributed to my asd, but they all are also common for dyspraxics.
From my understanding, a lot of autistics also experience these things even without the added dyspraxia diagnosis, which is where my question comes into play.
A lot of people will say that autistics do not have a physical disability, but if the majority of autistics meet the criteria of dyspraxia... does that mean the physical manifestations of dyspraxia are also not a physical disability? My dyspraxia affects my movement way more than my mild hypermobility does. It affects my movement way more than my knocked knees and duckfoot do. It affects my movement more than my scoliosis does. I always considered my dyspraxia to be my "main" physical disability.
Then I got into the disability community and had people telling me that my migraines and asthma counted as physical disabilities, but that my coordination disorder which affects my fine motor skills doesn't... despite it having a much greater affect on my physical ability to do things than my chronic migraines. I guess I'm just very confused as to how this is split.
My knocked knees + duckfoot is a physical disability because it's a malformation of my hips and legs that affects my gait, but my dyspraxia affects my gait just as much if not more than my knocked knees + duckfoot. It seems odd that one should be considered a valid physical disability and the other not just because it's how my brain developed as opposed to how my skeleton did.
I used to work with high support needs autistic people and knew some who used a wheelchair with no other diagnoses - just asd. I have met with other dyspraxics who need mobility aids due to severe coordination deficiencies (the person I'm thinking of specifically went back and forth between a cane and a walker). I used to work with many autistics who could not feed themselves due to motor control issues, or who would regularly aspirate on food and drink due to dysphagia.
I know this argument is tired, and I'm not asking to use the C slur or anything, I am just genuinely confused how we as a community are deciding what is a physical disability versus a neurodevelopmental disability that manifests with physical symptoms. If the accommodations i need for my fine motor difficulties are the same as any physical disability which causes fine motor difficulties, then what is the difference that makes discussing dyspraxia an intrusion on physical disability posts /gen
Edited to fix incomplete sentence. Sorry, sometimes my brain moves too fast for my hands
Edit 2: okay, I actually have more to add about how confusing this separation actually is. Catatonia is present in about 10% of psychiatric patients, including depression (with up to 20% of depression sufferers having catatonic depression). Recent studies into ADHD have shown that ADHD causes fine motor difficulties, on top of ADHD being one of the most common Dyspraxia comorbidities. Tic disorders don't count unless your tics affect your movement... even though all non-vocal and non-mental tics are physical tics. 80% of autistics have gait and movement differences. Schizophrenia spectrum disorders are particularly known for including catatonia. ALL of these are physical symptoms - more than that, they are symptoms that affect the ability to walk or access adequate fine motor control skills. These are also the disorders I see most commonly called out for claiming physical symptoms when "they don't have them." I am so confused on how you guys are classifying physical symptoms because these??? all of these symptoms??? very clearly physical and interrupt daily functioning.
I am just. Confused.
