Two autistic people could have the exact same motor challenges and each make different decisions about what is “good enough” for them.
Excerpt
"Part of providing respectful and affirming support for autistic people with motor challenges (and anyone experiencing physical disability, really) is giving people autonomy over their bodies. One piece of this is giving people autonomy in choosing what aspects of their movement or motor skills they would like to change or seek support for, and what aspects of their movement they feel are “good enough.” Many of us as autistic people experience some degree of motor developmental disability at some point in our life. It’s not uncommon for autistic folks to need to reflect on what they feel “good enough” motor function might wind up looking like for themselves, given their individual circumstances. A 2023 study by Gowen et al. explored the perspectives of autistic adults with coordination challenges and highlighted some of the factors that might influence people in deciding what is “good enough” movement for them. Many autistic adults who experience coordination challenges have never received formal support for their motor disability, and wish they had been able to access support, as coordination challenges can affect many domains of our lives. We often are motivated to work hard at developing the movement skills that are meaningful to us, even when our coordination difficulties make it so that we need to spend much more time practicing a movement than the average person might. With enough practice, we often can and do improve our motor skills. But for many of us, there can be certain activities that always remain challenging, even after extensive practice. So, what do we do when that situation arises? As the participants in the study shared, we learn ways of coping and working with the movement that we have. Essentially, we often wind up needing to accept that certain aspects of our motor function are “good enough”, and find alternative ways of doing what we want and need to do."
