When I first knew my child was different he was but a toddler. I had worked with children his age before but never had I seen such behavior in a child. At home he was fine but when we would go out in public it was like I had a whole new child with me. I had to warn people not to get to close to this sweet smiling little boy and man did that get me looks until this sweet smiling child was no longer smiling at them but now was hitting them across the face. Then came the looks of what is wrong with this child how can he go from smiling one minute to hitting you the next. It all seemed like a ploy at the time that he used to reel them in. As he got a bit older he stopped doing that but there was still this different child out in public. He would be calm and well behaved at home but take him out and he was WILD. When he started preschool he was just in a regular class, but soon the teacher was saying that my child was slow in every way possible, which of course I knew wasn't true. So, they had him tested yet again and yet again the testing came back that he was an extremly intelligent child but this time they knew there was some delays in his social skills. They ended up putting him in a smaller class and then he worked his way slowly back into a normal size class. Then it was time for kindergarten. That year went pretty good. He had a wonderful teacher who was astounded by this 5 year old who was able to tell her how he needed his own space. He wasn't able to concentrate at a table with other kids. Then came first grade, what a year! The teacher he had seemed to have him pegged as a troublemaker from day one. It always seemed like he couldn't do anything right. I dreaded parent-teacher confrences because she focused solely on the negative and never on the positive. Towards the middle of the year after his little brother was born he became very hyper. The doctor decided to put him on a med for ADHD. He went beserk and became very agressive. He ended up in the principals office 3 days in a row. I went in for a meeting with the principal and when she found out he had been put on meds for ADHD she demanded he be taken off. She didn't believe that was what he had and referred me to a new doctor. We met this new doctor over summer break. After spending 5 minutes with my son he told me that he believed my son had Aspergers. I had never heard of it. He explained to me how it was on the autism spectrum but that it mainly affected their social skills. My son fit the bill so we were sent to a specialist for him to be tested. Sure enough that's what he had. His doctor put him on some nonstimulant meds. What a difference they made! The sweet calm child that I seen at home could now be seen out in public most of the time. He is now 10 and still on the same med. He has his moments but we deal with them. Each day is a new adventure for us. I will go into more depth with my younger son in my next post and also share a little more about myself and why this is a disabled mom's journey.
No comments:
Post a Comment