Rav Wilding tells of lifelong struggle due to motor-skills disorder
The former police officer and Crimewatch host said he ‘battled on’ with his issues before he was told he had the condition.
Rav Wilding has told how he struggled throughout his life until being diagnosed with a motor-skills disorder.
The TV presenter said he had “just sort of battled on” until he was formally diagnosed a couple of years ago.
The former Crimewatch host said that taking part in a new craft competition programme was difficult for him because of the way his brain works due to having dyspraxia, also known as developmental coordination disorder (DCD).
Wilding told the Press Association: “I’ve got this thing called dyspraxia, so I have a hand-eye co-ordination disorder. I’m dyslexic as well, but dyspraxia is kind of like dyslexia with your hands.
“I find it very difficult to do anything intricate; my brain just does not work that way. And the only way I can do anything is if I can see it, visualise it, literally see it with my eyes, what I am supposed to do.
“When the challenges were given to me, and I was told, ‘You’re going to do this’, because I couldn’t see what it was going to be like at the end, I couldn’t see what I was supposed to making, I did find that really hard.
“It’s just the way my brain works. It was kind of tricky.”
Dyspraxia affects the planning and processing of movements and coordination as a result of brain messages not being accurately transmitted to the body, although the causes are not fully understood.
Wilding, 41, stars in Channel 4’s new daytime show hosted by Kirstie Allsopp Kirstie’s Celebrity Craft Masters, which puts celebrities to the test with a number of craft-based challenges, including embroidery, pottery and crochet.
Despite the challenges he faced, Wilding said he did not take the programme too seriously as it was “a bit of fun, a laugh and a family show”.
He added: “It wasn’t the hardest thing in the world that I could ever do, but that sometimes gets frustrating.
“I used to find it really hard when I was at school and I couldn’t do things that everyone else could do really easily.
“I’ve always struggled with it and just sort of battled on, and it wasn’t until I had a formal medical diagnosis a couple of years ago, and they said the extent of what I had and it all made sense. The things I’ve always struggled with, that’s why.”
Former police officer and soldier Wilding, whose TV credits include Strictly Come Dancing, Splash! Crimewatch Roadshow and Helicopter Heroes, said he is now keen to make a documentary about dyspraxia, as well as dyslexia.
He said: “Since I was formally diagnosed a couple years ago, I’ve researched it quite a bit and there’s so much that I genuinely didn’t know about this.
“It doesn’t mean you’re not as clever as anyone else, it doesn’t mean that at all, it just means your brain works in a slightly different way.
“And what it typically means is you excel in other areas that those don’t. It’s a good thing.
“I’ve been working a little bit on that to see if I can get that off the ground.”
Kirstie’s Celebrity Craft Masters starts on Channel 4 on July 1.
