Motor skills

[Ihaveaspergers]

Aspergers often find that focusing on many things at the same times is difficult. This could be applied to learning new skills motor skills. I, personaly, like to break down motor skills into smaller parts. At dance lessons (the dreaded group lessons) one often focuses on many motor skills at the same time. This also happens at singing lessons (private lessons). The singing teacher I have now is super good at focusing on one skills at a time. Another example is when I learned English (second language) pronunciation. I had to focus on just one single sound eg "can" becomes "c'n" in some sentences. I felt like a kid learning the correct pronunciation.
What are your experiences? What has worked for you?

 

[Matthias]

Aspergers often find that focusing on many things at the same times is difficult. This could be applied to learning new skills motor skills. I, personaly, like to break down motor skills into smaller parts. At dance lessons (the dreaded group lessons) one often focuses on many motor skills at the same time. This also happens at singing lessons (private lessons). The singing teacher I have now is super good at focusing on one skills at a time. Another example is when I learned English (second language) pronunciation. I had to focus on just one single sound eg "can" becomes "c'n" in some sentences. I felt like a kid learning the correct pronunciation.
What are your experiences? What has worked for you?

I'm the same way. I've noticed stress makes things worse. Reducing my stress helped me more than anything else. Trying to relax and think positively helped although most of my stress was due to being alone and didn't go away until I overcame my anxiety, stopped masking and started being myself. It was hard at first but got easier over time.

 

[Mia]

Do a lot of sports, because I enjoy how I feel during and after. Cycling for example is easy for me. Mainly as a result of having my first bike when I was young, and teaching myself to balance with it as it was larger than it should have been. So having to compensate for it's size led me to balance better later when I bought bikes that were my size.

Terrible with hand and eye coordination, tennis, squash, handball, baseball, never won a game. I do better in sports in which I'm alone competing against myself. I swim, cycle, used to run, speed walk at times. Many aspies don't do sports or much in the way of exercise as they have difficulty with coordination, it seems it can be learned, the earlier in life the better.

 

[Thinx]

I learned to ride a bike aged 7, and my method was to pedal until I fell off, which gradually happened less frequently. I was very motivated to learn, for sure. Generally my motor skills are erratic, hmm would I call them skills, maybe random use of movements would be more accurate. I was the one neither team wanted in games of any kind, though initially keen. That wore off of course.

Same applied when trying to learn musical instruments, which I would have loved to do. Learning such skills bit by bit sounds a good plan, but I practiced guitar for ages daily for years without seeing much progress, maybe you do need a bit of talent in the zone of what you are trying aswell as a strategy.

I can row a boat, and again I just kept trying. And gradually got the hang of it. I can swim a long way, but I don't swim in a recognisable stroke, and the coach I tried definitely had no strategies I could use. I think demonstrations work well for me, my friend often demonstrates a movement if I am trying to learn something like say painting a fence. That's helpful, I can imitate a movement quite well often.

 

[Au Naturel]

My fine motor skills are terrible. My balance, eye-hand coordination, and proprioception are simply inferior. I can improve them with practice in a limited sense but I'll never be a good ballplayer or dancer. I can work it up to where I'm no longer absolutely horrid. There are a few sports where I can bypass my inherent issues, so I go there instead.

 

[Soleil]

When I try to play a new piano piece (I'm okay with relatively simple pieces) I always break it down: my right hand, then my left hand, then together, then move on to the next part. If I forget something that I've already practiced a bit, then I rush through it in the hopes that muscle memory will take over (it frequently does).
But even with a lot of practice, I have a hard time hitting the keys properly. I also have a hard time drawing smooth circles and straight lines, and my penmanship is pretty bad sometimes.

 

[Mia]

But even with a lot of practice, I have a hard time hitting the keys properly. I also have a hard time drawing smooth circles and straight lines, and my penmanship is pretty bad sometimes.

That explains my inability to play guitar and sing at the same time, I'd not really thought about it, but it is all about hand coordination. Interestingly, I can draw well, but my guitar playing is most definitely basic, not matter how long I've played. Bar cords are a torment.

 

[Gracey]

When younger I enjoyed the 'feel' of sports. Not just the physics or biomechanics but the endorphin buzz afterwards.

I often wonder if 'thinking in pictures', in addition to repetition, helped me master a skill.
If I could see the movement from start to finish in my minds eye, I could then go ahead and perform it.

In gymnastics, I wasn't aware of Newtons laws, velocity, moments of inertia/movement but could 'feel' them.

I couldn't get the hang of tennis but enjoyed badminton.
I liked the force and speed of squash but never won a game.

In team sports, hockey, netball, rounders, relay, once I understood my role in the team, the easier it was to figure out what I was supposed to do.

In my own case, visualisation and practise helped me better my attempts.

 

[Gracey]

My handwriting is visualisation, rhythm and repetition.
Calligraphy is different.


I have a bit of a mental block when it comes to playing an acoustic guitar.

I can't read music and play at the same time??
It's one or the other.

 

[Autistic Yoda]

I served in the Israeli military, where young men on the spectrum are conscripted too. My squad was assigned as Prime Minister Yizhak Rabin's honor guard, to greet him at the airport with coordinated marching and tightly synchronized rifle salutation motions. We drilled for days. At the airport dress rehearsal, the master sergeant singled me out. Pointing away from the landing field, he delivered his order; "Go and guard the bus, so it doesn't escape." I sat in the bus alone until it was over, and never saw Rabin. Had they assigned me suitable tasks in the IDF, I would have excelled instead.

 

[Aspychata]

Motor skills are learned and improved for me. I fell off my bike, but swam alot. Skiing at an advanced level took awhile to transition to. Scuba diving is definitely motor skills with a heavy oxygen tank attached to your back with a precarious environment. Lost my snorkel because l misjudged the loop l scuba thru, which caught the top of my snorkel. l also took too many breaths once and emptied out my tank fast. Sports taught me that things improved if you apply yourself. l enjoy tennis but my tennis serve sucks, but l like to rally. l used biking as transportation in Hawaii safely for some time. Just worried what the increasing age train will do to my motor skills.

 

[Khendra]

I have the same issues, and this comes from a woman who actually likes and excels at most ball sports (go figure!)

Still, I learn things like cooking, driving, and other observational/motor skills much slower. In my last job, I had to get special exemption for learning and applying physical restraints because I can't cross the midline very well.

 

[Streetwise]

I served in the Israeli military, where young men on the spectrum are conscripted too. My squad was assigned as Prime Minister Yizhak Rabin's honor guard, to greet him at the airport with coordinated marching and tightly synchronized rifle salutation motions. We drilled for days. At the airport dress rehearsal, the master sergeant singled me out. Pointing away from the landing field, he delivered his order; "Go and guard the bus, so it doesn't escape." I sat in the bus alone until it was over, and never saw Rabin. Had they assigned me suitable tasks in the IDF, I would have excelled instead.

There are people with autistic neurology in combat roles in the USA why do other countries relegate to a computer monitor ,the tired belief that everybody is an ex citizen of silicon valley.

 

[Mia]

Skiing at an advanced level took awhile to transition to.

Cross-country I do as well as snow shoeing. Attempting downhill almost terminated me several times. Too fast and too frightening. Golf? No.

 

[Aspychata]

Cross-country I do as well as snow shoeing. Attempting downhill almost terminated me several times. Too fast and too frightening. Golf? No.

Cross-country is hard. So is snow shoeing. Downhill ski is defintely a speed junkie high with daredevil thrown in. And you pray that nobody gets harmed. But l have seen plenty of chairlift mishaps.

 

[Au Naturel]

My handwriting is visualisation, rhythm and repetition.
Calligraphy is different.


I have a bit of a mental block when it comes to playing an acoustic guitar.

I can't read music and play at the same time??
It's one or the other.

LOL! You are fortunate to do either one. About all I can do well is sing and that is by ear.

 

[Rasputin]

Aspergers often find that focusing on many things at the same times is difficult. This could be applied to learning new skills motor skills. I, personaly, like to break down motor skills into smaller parts. At dance lessons (the dreaded group lessons) one often focuses on many motor skills at the same time. This also happens at singing lessons (private lessons). The singing teacher I have now is super good at focusing on one skills at a time. Another example is when I learned English (second language) pronunciation. I had to focus on just one single sound eg "can" becomes "c'n" in some sentences. I felt like a kid learning the correct pronunciation.
What are your experiences? What has worked for you?

I was not able to learn how to type or use a 10-key calculator, no matter how hard I tried. I didn't know why I could not learn there skills, but was able to fake it throughout my career. So today at age 62, I type with only two fingers and have not used a calculator in years. Often it is easier for me to add a column of numbers in my head than it is to use a calculator.

 

[Autistic Yoda]

Streetwise, I did tell the IDF up front exactly what I'd be good for. Serving in Military Intelligence, summarizing English language media and other documents in Hebrew for them. They assigned me to Military Police instead, tending to captured enemy P.O.W.'s for three years. I was unremarkable in every way in that role. Their loss, it was.

 

[Au Naturel]

I got really good at typing with 3 fingers and thumb. On a good day, I get up to 4 fingers. Still have to have the keyboard in my vision even though I am not consciously looking for keys.

 

[Streetwise]

Cross-country is hard. So is snow shoeing. Downhill ski is defintely a speed junkie high with daredevil thrown in. And you pray that nobody gets harmed. But l have seen plenty of chairlift mishaps.

Shaved my wrists on an artificial ski slope don't recommend falling on that