The lived experience of adults with Dyspraxia/DCD : A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of Doctor of Philosophy at Lincoln University

Abstract

Dyspraxia is an emergent social phenomenon that has generally been associated with childhood and motor coordination difficulties. The experience of Dyspraxia in adulthood is, conversely, not well understood with only a small number of studies examining Dyspraxia across the life course. Dyspraxia is predominantly conceptualised in both the research literature and practice using the biomedical model. Dyspraxia is one of several neurodivergent experiences and possibly the least well known, having only been recognised in the past two decades, in comparison to a longer social awareness of experiences such as Dyslexia and Autism. Known as Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD) in the medical literature, the phenomenon has been etiologically defined as a physical functional deficit. By contrast, Dyspraxia can also be understood as having cognitive functional aspects, such as in the Aotearoa New Zealand context. The objectives of this research were firstly to examine the lived experiences of participants with Dyspraxia/ DCD in relation to predominant social biomedical conceptualisations. A second objective was to identify the repercussions of contemporary social framings of Dyspraxia/ DCD in Aotearoa New Zealand and how Dyspraxia is understood and addressed, particularly in adulthood. The approach taken to answer the research objectives was that of the thematic analysis of semi-structured interviews undertaken with both people with Dyspraxia and professional participants. In this work, a qualitative approach was employed in the form of semi-structured interviews with twenty-three people with Dyspraxia to better understand the lived experience. Further, twenty-six professionals in medical and education fields were also interviewed to investigate the role of institutions on the Dyspraxia lived experience. Participants were located through two gatekeeper organisations, cold-calling and snowball sampling techniques. This research, undertaken by an insider researcher with Dyspraxia, highlighted that an examination of Dyspraxia is unable to be considered independently of social contexts. Further, it was found that biomedical framings affected the lived experience of participants with Dyspraxia/DCD in Aotearoa New Zealand and the subsequent social response to the phenomenon. The lived experience of Dyspraxia in adulthood was found to have implications for how people with Dyspraxia construct their identity with Dyspraxic participants describing the need to adapt in normative social settings to achieve inclusion. This thesis adds to current conceptualisations by utilising the capabilities approach (CA) to examine the lived experience of Dyspraxia in relation to the medical and social models. Throughout are a range of accounts from Dyspraxic participants, describing their attempts to access the capabilities necessary to ensure the life outcomes they value. The CA can account for the significant changes between childhood and adulthood described by study participants within their social worlds. In contrast to the biomedical perception that DCD is a physical deficit, this thesis shows that the attainment of capabilities is complex and evolves across the lifespan in response to personal heterogeneities but also the social environments that Dyspraxic participants inhabit. The CA was found in the discussion to improve upon, and complement, current conceptualisations of Dyspraxia. Conceptualising Dyspraxia in alternate ways to better explain study findings, such as using the CA, suggests a range of areas for future research and practice.