The Adventures of Dysfunctional Dan

In my last blog post, I wrote about trauma and a few days later I thought about one of the most traumatic moments of my childhood. I should point out that this tale isn't meant to be taken as a genuine trauma before I start recounting it.  So let's travel back to the late 90s. I was maybe six or seven and was enjoying primary school and my prized possession was a bouncy ball- I've always been easy to please. As bouncy balls go, this was top of the range. The top half was clear and the bottom half was a translucent blue which represented the sea because embedded in the centre of this bouncy ball was a plastic dolphin. For a short period, this ball accompanied me everywhere.  One day I had a day off school, presumably an INSET day, and so I had to accompany my Dad to pick up my younger brother from nursery. My Dad, very much in character, was talking for what felt like some time to another parent so as we waited my brother and I played on the long disabled ramp which led to t...

I've been thinking about trauma lately.  Pretty much of all of us go through some sort of trauma in our lives. It will affect us and change who we are but most of us can find ways to move beyond it, even if we'll never quite be over it. Of course, there are some traumas that are too great and traumas in childhood (the technical name is Adverse Childhood Experiences or ACEs) are likely to have lasting damage to adulthood.  When we think of trauma we probably think of some violent event and though that sort of thing does happen far too often, the majority of us don't face something quite so extreme. For me, my life changed towards the end of my time at university when I found myself in my final teaching placement. I'd been making steady progress over my time at university and suddenly I found it all crashing down around me.    For a long time, I blamed my failures on myself but over time that has changed. I can't ever fully distance myself from them because ultimately...

This week is Dyspraxia Awareness Week 2020 and this year I came up with an idea for a dyspraxic alphabet. I asked the dyspraxia community online for some inspiration and the result is a collection of things which I think sum up what it's like to be dyspraxic really well. Obviously, experiences vary and no two people are the same so some things on the list may reflect more people than others. I can also only write my own personal experiences so other people may or may not feel the same way about these things. Auditory Processing - Though it's easy to perceive dyspraxia as simply a condition that makes you clumsy, really it's all to do with how the brain processes information. Auditory processing is something I can find difficult and I often find myself anticipating a question and answering it quickly, only to find I've wrongly anticipated and have said something really odd. The alternative is an uncomfortable pause which feels like it lasts forever as my brain tries to p...