Natalie Williams
Dyspraxia and disability blogger
I’m Natalie, I’m 25 and I have dyspraxia and mild cerebral palsy.
I started this blog in 2014, initially intended to be a one-off blog post for Dyspraxia Awareness Week (hence the blog title) but soon discovered that blogging is something I really enjoy and am passionate about. I have since had some amazing opportunities to raise awareness of dyspraxia, such as being interviewed on BBC Three Counties radio and being featured in an article in The Guardian. I love raising awareness and helping others and try to do so wherever I can, through my social media accounts and on this blog. I hope you enjoy reading my posts!
Natalie Williams - The Blog With (More Than) One Post 
Hi Natalie. This is a great piece of writing too. I think you are my ‘dyspraxia twin’ although I am at a different stage of my life, but I really identify with all you say. The taking things literally bit has got me into a fair bit of bother over the years. I once went to the doctor with a ‘ladies’ complaint. And he wrote me out a prescription and then said “So, off with those jeans.” Well, naturally I started to remove my jeans as I thought he wanted to examine me, when he’d just meant that I should avoid wearing jeans for a while till the condition cleared up. Oh, blush! On the topic of forgetting things, I probably should have added to my blog the time I went for my last antenatal appointment at the surgery, and was running late and forgot to put my knickers on. Okay I know they’re medical professionals but the GP I was seeing that day was young and quite shy, and I only hoped he didn’t think it was some sort of message to him lol. Re: Eating, it’s odd, but I find that I can use chopsticks perfectly (although I wouldn’t want to try it with baked beans!) whereas a knife and fork can be tricky, especially the cutting bit. Nice to have made contact with you. One day, maybe everyone will understand folks like us 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you so much! I’m glad you found it relatable! Haha, being dyspraxic does mean that we have plenty of funny stories to tell! I don’t think I’ve ever really attempted using chopsticks, but it would be interesting to try. Yes, it’s so nice speaking to other people with dyspraxia. And I agree, it would be great for dyspraxia to be a condition that people are more aware of one day 🙂
LikeLike
Hi Natalie, I have been reading your blog about dyspraxia and fatigue. My daughter suffers with this, she is dyslexic and dispraxic. I also suffer with severe tiredness. The thing that has helped the most is high dose vitamin c particularly liposomal vit c. Results are amazing and show within 10-30 minutes. You see it is also a brain food. The other thing that helps enormously is ionic magnesium oil this helps to reduce the high levels of stress generated by having to concentrate so hard and helps to relax so making it easier to sleep. Hope this might help you too. Hopefully one day mainstream will understand these conditions better, for dyspraxics are often highly intelligent and also have other sensitivity gifts that are not at first recognised. May be because they operate on different frequencies in the brain to mainstream and pick up things like changes in air pressure, and things often called supernatural or subliminal signals. Take special care of you and you will succeed in amazing ways. The world need people able to think outside the box! x
LikeLike
Hi Josie, that’s really interesting to know. Thank you! 🙂 x
LikeLike
Hi Natalie,
I am also a diagnosed dyspraxic. Physical activities are extremely difficult for me, but 2 and a half years ago I took up horse riding. It was so difficult at first, just tying up a horse to a pole took me a year to figure out how to do properly. There have been no improvements with other sports, but my horse riding is becoming quite a high level and I am absolutely ecstatic that I have found something that dyspraxia doesn’t hold back. It still takes me a while to learn things, so I don’t usually go in group lessons as I would be holding back the other riders. I also struggle a lot with organising my words and I have little spacial awareness like most other dyspraxics. My mother is very understanding about my condition and I am very lucky to have her, she has adjusted most things at school to match my abilities. I feel like my father doesn’t really understand about my condition, however. He usually gives me challenges I simply can’t achieve, and sometimes it’s like he is pushing me so much, it’s so stressing. I try my very best to live up to his expectations, but I can’t do everything he wants me to do. I hope one day he might understand.
I also suffer from severe anxiety and insomnia. I find life very hard sometimes, like I just can’t do it. I am so glad I discovered your blog, I think it will make me feel better connecting with other people like me.
~Chloe x
LikeLike
Hi Chloe, that’s fantastic to hear how well horse riding has gone for you. I used to do horse riding (well, pony riding) when I was about 7 – I loved it, but fell off so many times! That’s a shame that your father isn’t so understanding of your dyspraxia, could you show him the dyspraxia foundation website maybe so that he can get more of an insight? Aw thank you, I’m glad you found it helpful. I’m not sure how old you are, but there’s a youth group on Facebook for people aged 13-25 with dyspraxia that you might like to join, if so I’ll send you the link x
LikeLike
HI Natalie, I’ve really been struggling with my dyspraxia recently as I’m in college now, which is a new environment so it’s a bit of a challenge for me, but reading your blogs really helped me ground myself and make me realise that I’m not the only one struggling with things like this, I relate to almost all of your posts and I must say that though it is an old one I really did enjoy reading your dyspraxia/autism comparison, thank you for posting here, it’s really helped me
LikeLike
Thank you for your comment, so glad to hear you’ve found it helpful! 🙂
LikeLike
Thank you so much for writing this blog. My 11-year-old son was just diagnosed with mild CP and we’re still a little in shock; we’re still doing testing to see if dyspraxia is also present. I appreciate knowing that we’re not the only ones receiving a later diagnosis of CP. 🙂
LikeLike
No problem, thank you for your comment! Glad to hear you’ve found it helpful. If you have any other questions then feel free to ask 🙂
LikeLike
Hi Natalie!
How’s it going?
My name is Dom, I’m the educational enrichment editor here at Tutorful. I’m currently working on an editorial on The Ultimate Resources For Dyspraxia Support. Our content has appeared in the Times, Telegraph and Forbes.
We just completed a survey, where we asked 60,000 parents, students and tutors who use our platform to recommend the resources (apps, websites, books and so forth) they feel benefit their knowledge of dyspraxia (or verbal apraxia), or support them in living with it, day to day. Your blog was amongst those recommended as an excellent experiential support guide. We’re now trying to shortlist the top 30 or so resources.
I’ll be looking at all our responses and taking a better look at our favourites, so it would be great if you could get back to me as soon as possible with 50 – 100 words max to answer the following question:
Why do you feel your app was recommended based on its educational benefits?
We’ll be adding our favourite dyspraxia support resources to the editorial, categorising, and making sure we provide the most easily digestible content for our audience. Additionally, we’ll be adding the best resource for each category to the recommended resources section of our e-newsletter and potentially, the student dashboard. Feel free to be as witty as you’d like!
For those who haven’t heard of Tutorful, we’re the UK’s leading online tuition marketplace. We have created a bespoke algorithm, where we are able to connect thousands of families every week with the very best tutor for them. A large part of our service is supporting families in finding trained SEN tutors for children who need more bespoke support. We carry out surveys on a regular basis, to make sure we can give the best educational advice to our students, parents and tutors.
I look forward to your response!
Kind regards,
Dom
Educational Enrichment Editor
LikeLike
Hi Natalie, my name is Darragh I just come crossed your blog. I finally found someone like me has dyspraxia and cp. I’m am in middle of getting classification by british athletics. What age where you when you got diagnosed with cp??
LikeLike
Hi Darragh, I also used to take part in athletics and was classified as a T38. It’s a bit complicated in terms of the diagnosis, I was diagnosed with dyspraxia when I was 3 years old and was diagnosed with CP at the same time but didn’t actually find out I had CP until I was 13!
LikeLike
Hi Natalie, what an inspiration you are. And thank you so much for your blog. By reading your blog I have really been able to understand my sons difficulties. He is 15 and needs so much to be understood as to why he finds life so difficult. I am in my 50 and after reading your account regarding dyspraxia, truly believe that if dyspraxia was understood when I was younger I too would have had a diagnosis. Because I didn’t understand why I feel the way I did and do now I have had depression all my life. I don’t want what I have been through for my son. You have given me inspiration to fight for him and understand him. Thank you.
LikeLike
Thank you so much for your comment, I’m really glad to hear that you found my blog helpful!
LikeLike