EllenJane You accuse the mother of the child you TA of not coming to terms with an ASD diagnoses and linking everything to Dyspraxia. But it sounds to me as though you also would 'prefer' your DSs issues to be Dyspraxia related rather than ASD or something else although I can't imagine why you would want to do that. Yet this is what seems to be the case.
If you think your child is dyspraxic get a diagnosis.
Incidentally - swimming is something that dyspraxics can do very well. In a weird underwater sort of way. And while you list some of the more well known dyspraxic traits (and one which is quite controversial - many dyspraxics not only don't have delayed speech they have very advanced speech. Like my girls. And we were initially told DD1 couldn't possibly be dyspraxic even though she can't walk through a door without walking into the frame because her linguistic skills were so advanced, and that was probably down to popular perceptions being shaped by people self diagnosing) - you don't list the less well known - because so much more embarrassing and problematical - ones.
I don't know what it's like to be the mother of an ASD child. But I'm not convinced you know what it's like to be the mother of a dyspraxic child (or to be dyspraxic yourself).
And yes you are very much touching a nerve. Like I said - get a diagnosis. Otherwise, I won't tell you about ASD and don't you tell me about Dyspraxia. I am more than fed up of everyone thinking they are an expert about something when they quite clearly are not. :(