The Illustrated Dyspraxicon 01: An Autoethnographical Exploration of Dyspraxia and Associated Traits

Abstract

As the numerical title indicates, this is a preliminary exploration through autoethnography into the condition of Dyspraxia; also know as Developmental Co-ordination Disorder (DCD). The work challenges the notion that Dyspraxia is solely a physical co-ordination condition, and explores the impacts, both positive and negative on cognitive and neurological processing, memory and organisational skills. The work is developed and conceptualised through drawing, using a visual communication framework of cartoons and the comic strip. In a sense, the title is misleading, as the research is not illustrated. The research is the discovery of knowledge through the act of drawing. The drawings don't support the words, in fact in many instances, the images come first, leading the thinking. Both images and words hold equal value in the thought processes that created them, and the manner of the dissemination. This is important as a challenge to accepted methods of knowledge dissemination and measurement, and the accepted view that words are intellectually superior to images, and drawings in particular.
The work explores the subject's parameters and possibilities for further development of the concept, it is a work in progress, dividing into 2 clear research paths. Firstly, the development of a publishable book, in a clear visual, drawn style, examining the impact of Dyspraxia in adults (there are few, if any good books on the subject written from the point of view of someone with Dyspraxia), and secondly, further research and development of page design and text layout to overcome issues such as line scanning, cognition and reading speed, encountered by dyspraxic readers.