Why Do Dyspraxics Have Difficulty With Driving? Challenges and Suggestions

If you’ve ever tried to teach or guide a new driver, especially a neurodiverse one, or if you, yourself, have struggled to learn to drive, you may have had to deal with some of the challenges described below. We’ll discuss some of the possible difficulty and the reasons behind them and offer some suggestions.

Controlling the car

Wouldn’t it be nice if your foot hit the correct pedal every time you wanted to accelerate or slow down. And your hand would just know how to find the controls (transmission, windshield wipers, lights etc.) without you having to search for them every time you need them…

Ah, and imagine that you can get the car going so automatically and still have a few brain cells available to navigate safely to where you’re going. For some people, this is indeed how it works.

This ability to reach and move and coordinate your hands and feet without thinking – something we call kinesthetic memory – depends on knowing where your body is, and where all its parts are as they move.

Experienced drivers may relate to this experience when they drive, for the first time, a vehicle that is new to them.

Learning through endless repetition can be overwhelming, especially since you need to do this while in traffic.

Consider sitting in a parked car and practising the sequences. When you are away from the car pause in your chair and go through the sequences in your imagination. Try a sing-song to help you remember a new set of movements you are working on.

By Dror Schneider

Driving safely

Positioning your vehicle on the road and maintaining the proper distance between yours and other vehicles takes concentration

This challenge may involve proprioceptive awareness. The sense of where you are extends to the whole of the car you are driving.

Perhaps you’ve even experienced driving under a bridge or a tree and you realized you were ducking to make sure your car is low enough to pass… But sensing the size of your car or the distance to the next one is something that may take some work. Relevant here also: will this car fit in this parking space?

Here’s a game to play with a partner to work on the first of those challenges. Go for a walk with a friend, arm in arm, choose an object ahead of you (such as a sign or a tree), and now close your eyes. Trusting that your friend will keep you safe, try to guess when you actually are passing by that object. Open your eyes: did you get it right?

Speaking of visual function – does the movement of the scenery to your sides make you dizzy? Are you overwhelmed by headlights you’re facing, or by quick changes of lights and shadow? Do you have enough night vision to see your way? All these are elements that can be worked on.

A difficulty alternating between focusing on the road and peeking at the speedometer.

This has to do with eye teaming. A difficulty with eye teaming can make you feel rather insecure regarding where a particular object (say, someone else’s car) is actually placed. And the whole environment may seem flat rather than in 3D.

A little exercise: Sit in the driver’s seat when the car is parked. Look at the distance and note that the dashboard is out of focus. Blink. Breathe. Now look at the dashboard, explore it a bit, remind yourself where different information is (e.g., your speedometer, your gas tank meter). Travel from detail to detail, and don’t mind at all that whatever view the windshield is offering is not telling you much right now. Blink. Breathe. Look at the distance again. Explore the details out in the distance, without making an effort. Close your eyes for a moment and let them rest.

A difficulty turning the head without following it with the hands.

In other words, if you see something that calls your attention on the side of the road, does your car tend to swerve in that direction? This has to do with your ability to differentiate movement: Do you move only what needs to move, and rest with everything else?

Here’s an exploration you can do: Lie on your back (you can use a pillow under your head) and stretch your right arm to the side at shoulder level. Bend and straighten your elbow. Try three different movements: As you straighten your elbow, turn your head to the right. Bend your elbow bringing your palm to your chest and turn your head back to the middle.

Repeat this a few times. Now as you straighten your right elbow, turn your head to the left. When you bend your elbow, turn your head back to the middle. Do this a few times. The third move is this: Bend and straighten your right elbow and don’t move your head at all, but rather just keep it in the center If you feel comfortable and not strained by this, do the same with your other arm.

A difficulty coordinating what the right side of the body is doing with what the left side is doing.

Shifting gears would be one example; stepping on the pedal with the correct foot is another. And of course you may have to do things with your feet and with your hands all at the same time… A challenge here can be described as a difficulty with the integrating, or collaborating, of the two brain hemispheres. And yes, it’s possible to work on this too.

Here’s a little exercise: Try to maintain a rhythm of 4-4-4-4 taps (you can do this to music) as you follow the following pattern:

Seated with your hands on your knees, tap your right hand on your right knee while you tap with your toes on the ground 4 times.
Now tap with both hands on your knees while the toes of both feet tap on the ground. 4 times.
Tap with your left hand on your left knee while your left toes tap on the ground. 4 times.
Tap with both hands on your knees while the toes of both feet tap on the ground. 4 times.
Continue for no more than half a minute. Stop sooner if you make three mistakes, or feel flushed, or just want to stop, or catch yourself holding your breath.

Finding your way. What may some of the underlying difficulties be?

One may be a challenge reading signposts

Something to do with visual function, maybe, or the vestibular system which supports not just balance but eye movement. Now if you have a navigation system, you may be finding it difficult to follow it visually or auditorily. Some sign posts show you a direction – for example, that the road will be curving to the right.

Try, in your mind, to follow that direction, so that you’d be prepared to turn the steering wheel correctly. You see a stop sign in the distance? Imagine yourself stopping there.

When you have a difficulty telling right from left, following directions can be really hard.

This becomes way trickier when you’re trying to drive in reverse, say, for parallel parking. One trick that works for some (besides working on laterality, or directionality) is wearing something on one hand or marking it in a way that a quick glimpse can tell you that it is your right (or if you’d rather, your left) hand.

Perhaps you’re trying to follow the auditory instructions from a navigator app or from a passenger guiding you to where you’re going.

Or maybe you struggle with the visual that the navigation tool offers. Auditory processing can be worked on. Visual function can be worked on.

One auditory processing challenge that we see is when a person reacts too quickly to the instruction. If “In a thousand feet turn left” does not translate to where that may be, it’s quite possible that you’d be trying to turn left immediately.

The ability to estimate distances, time and speed may all have to do with an organized sense of where your body is in space, along with that communication we already talked about between the two sides of the brain.

Too much to process!!

If you’re helping a new driver and getting the impression that he or she has no idea what the other drivers are up to, you can help by “thinking aloud” as you model driving. “That driver doesn’t seem to be slowing down”, “He’s been signaling to the left for several minutes; he may have just forgotten to stop signaling”, “I need to turn right in a couple of blocks, so I’ll start working on moving to the right lane carefully.”

If you can stand it, get your passenger to describe in the same fashion what you are doing and what you are perhaps thinking. See this “back seat driving” as a stage of learning.

These are of course just a few of the possible problems.

And to think that some people can hold conversation through all of this and even breathe.

How might we help? We would offer short, gentle activities that address, as needed, the sense of body in space, the automatic recognition of right and left, the inner ear, the teaming of the eyes, and auditory processing. We would work, as needed, on separating between what is moving and what isn’t, to support the ability to do certain movements on automatic. We may even work on the muscle tone of the arms so that holding the wheel would not be exhausting. We don’t teach driving, but we can help with passing the written test, if needed. Schedule to talk to us about it!

If you would like to talk with one of our experts to discuss what would be the best approach to support your dyspraxic child, book a free consultation today.