I have blogged about my son in the past and although there really is nothing new to add; my reason for blogging now is more a form of record keeping. I don't have the best memory, I can recall that I wanted to discuss something with his pediatrician but not necessarily the details. His appointments are so far apart, if I don't write it down I will likely forget.
As I have mentioned before, I am taking my kids to Disneyland for spring break. I had wanted to keep it a secret from my son because I felt he couldn't deal with the excitement. Well, I was wrong. Unlike Christmas, this sort of trip does not happen every year and being that we have never been my son has no idea how exciting this should be. Instead it has him extremely confused, and maybe a little excited, maybe.
When he first found out we were going he was upset with me because this meant we were not going to visit my parents. Then the whole spring break schedules threw him off. My niece is on spring break from March 15 to 19. My son at the beginning of March told his teacher that he was going to be off school for three weeks because he thought we were going to Quesnel for one week then California for two weeks. Even though I carefully explained it to him, he still drew his own conclusions.
Now, trying to figure out the timing of events is not a difficult task. You can take a look at a calendar and see how many weeks or days until an event occurs. My son is eleven and a half and he still gets confused naming the months in order. Just last night he was trying to figure out how long until my birthday. He asked what month we are in now, I challenged him to figure that one out on his own, he got it. Then I told him to name the months until he reaches December and count them on his fingers. No brainer right? Not for him, he mixed them up and forgot a few. Eventually with my assistance, he made it to December but forgot to count on his fingers. We started again, and he wondered were March went. He's eleven and a half. Why does he not know this?
We jokingly call him 10 second Tom, a character from the Adam Sandler movie 50 First Dates. The thing is it's not funny anymore. This is serious and I fear if we don't get answers fast he's only going to get worse. We couldn't figure out why he would insist on watching a move a second time, sometimes right after he just finished watching it. I think it's because he honestly doesn't recall what he just saw. There are times were he will watch the same movie three and four times over the course of a few days. Annoying for anyone else, but not for him.
I know for a fact that he thinks in pictures. This became apparent when he was learning how to spell with flash cards and he would as he explained it "take a picture" of the card and then repeat what he saw in his head. Give him the exact same list days later, and he's likely to not recall how to spell the word. He is a master Lego and Bionicle builder, the instructions are all pictures. He struggles with reading, and after completing the T & E Centre he is now at level 40 which is about the grade four level. This is fantastic considering he started eight weeks ago at grade one. We read every night, and for the sake of flow, I give him the words he struggles with, and generally they are the little ones. Big words seem a little easier for him.
So were do we go from here? We are still waiting for our appointments with the psychiatrist and the B.C. Autism Society, I don't know if he's autistic, I do know there is something very different about him. Aside from his ADHD which is confirmed and his LD also confirmed, what other set of letters are we going to pin to this child? I really don't care that there might be the addition of ASD (Autism Spectrum Disorder) or whatever, I just want him to get the help he needs. Yesterday, he commented that he wanted his LD to go away, I told him to read absolutely everything he can set his eyes on. He gets that. He asked how he gets rid of ADHD, I told him he will likely grow out of it. I hope I'm right. My sister did as did his dad. He may just be high energy, and there's nothing wrong with that. But the LD, well, that's a little scarier.
We have hope for his future. His dad is a finishing carpenter and when our son is old enough he can work with him during summer holidays and learn that trade. He could potentially graduate (I hope) and step into a $25.00/hr finishing carpenter job. He's would certainly be successful because of the visual aspect of it, and with his dad being in the union, he will get in no problem. I know his future will be ok, I worry about getting him there. He has already been taken advantage of by an older child at his school who was using my son for his own personal gain. I quickly put a stop to that so called friendship. When my son confronted this kid, the kid admitted he was only using him. A tough lesson but one I hope he can recall if a similar situation presents itself. Fingers crossed.
Now that I have this in print, I can re-read it before his next appointment and relay this to his doctor who hopefully will have an answer or something. Until then I will continue to research mental disorders and maybe something will present itself so I can arm myself with the tools he needs to be successful. He's got both parents rooting for him, along with friends and family. He's going to be ok, if it kills me he's going to be ok.
With much love, light and fingers crossed.
Tammy.
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