He Is Still a Typical Teenager
The following story is from the Scotsman.com. Pay particular attention to the section where ADHD, Asperger’s Syndrome, and dyspraxia are described; they are notably different than our perceptions in the States.
The Lost Boy Who Found Happiness
MAIRIONA MCINALLY-KIER
LAST week it was my son’s 13th birthday. We’d barely finished breakfast but he was already on the back lawn, punting a new football back and forth while keeping up a lively running commentary on his imaginary match. And at the weekend, he will host his football party at the local five-a-side club.
No different from any other 13-year-old boy, you might think. Except that all this would have been unthinkable six years ago. Ball skills of any kind were beyond him, he was having problems completing or even starting tasks at school and had great difficulty relating to his peer group.
As a result, his self-esteem was in his boots, he felt himself to be friendless and he was miserable much of the time.
We knew our child was bright: his vocabulary and general knowledge were impressive, his reading age was way above his actual age, and his ability to memorise poetry, song lyrics and times tables was staggering. He was articulate and unfailingly polite. Yet, night after night, he tearfully struggled through his homework, knowing what he wanted to write but unable to commit it to paper. It was as though there was a disconnection between his brain and his hand.
His teacher said that she’d never seen a child like him. She only just managed not to call him lazy but he was so slow at everything, from changing for PE to starting any task in his illegible, awkward scrawl. The learning support teacher was called in and noted that he was unusually disorganised, hesitant in many of his actions and had problems with sequencing. However, as he was clearly not dyslexic, she couldn’t help any further.
By this stage our child was chewing the cuffs of his blazer, shredding his skin with his nails and banging his head with his fist or against walls "to make it work properly". Our happy-go-lucky toddler had turned into a child who was shunned by others, left out of games because he was clumsy, over-loud and couldn’t be relied upon to catch or stop a ball. Fortunately, the new school year brought with it a new teacher whose first degree was in psychology (and who is now an educational psychologist). Within days she called us and asked us to get him tested, and by the end of that term we were told that our child was dyspraxic with a notable visual-motor dysfunction and accompanying ADHD, an assessment later agreed by the NHS.
Often found to co-exist with dyslexia, ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder) or Asperger’s syndrome, dyspraxia is thought to affect about ten per cent of the population to some degree, with boys being four times as likely as girls to suffer from it.
According to the Dyspraxia Foundation, it is "an impairment or immaturity of the organisation of movement. This affects the way in which the brain processes information, resulting in messages not being properly or fully transmitted. Associated with this there may be problems of language, perception and thought".
As far as we know, children and adults with the condition are wired up slightly differently to what we consider as the norm. Why this should be is still subject to research but it is likely that there are multiple causes. For some, metabolism and diet are implicated, particularly the manner in which essential fatty acids are broken down. It is thought that some children simply do not get enough of the right kind of movement practice while they are babies. Others believe that some children retain primitive reflexes and fail to develop postural reflexes.
Getting a diagnosis is a struggle. As parents, we expect teachers to recognise the condition, but many are not trained to do so. Even if children are referred by their schools, there are simply not enough paediatric occupational therapists and educational psychologists to go round. Assessment waiting lists are long. We know that we are very fortunate to have been able to fund private therapy to help our child. Without it, I doubt he would be the happy 13-year-old he is today.
In the years since that initial diagnosis, we’ve relocated to Glasgow, where our child now attends a private school that recognises his specific learning difficulties but does not diminish its performance expectations. Instead, it accommodates interventions to help him. He uses a writing slope, sits near the front of the class and uses a computer to complete assignments. He used a scribe for several of his S1 exams, an experiment deemed so successful that he’ll use one for most exams in future.
He still has his difficult days but, as he put it at breakfast on his birthday: "That’ll be my hormones!"
In other words, he has what is recognised as a specific learning difficulty, but he is still a typical teenager.
Mairiona McInally-Kier is a volunteer co-ordinator with the Dyspraxia Association in Scotland. For more information, visit www.dyspraxiafoundation.org.uk
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