Questing

For those of you who actually read this, I am sorry I have been away. Life has been a bit crazy... company - we had a wonderful visit from the matriarch of Hubby's family, a wonderful and kind person who is my role model for how I would like to be when I am older; confirmation - yes she wore a skirt & even read in the mass, a lovely evening; we had (still have)car problems - yuck! We had blah blah blah - life has just been crazy - primarily in good ways, so I am not complaining.

Writing about our quest to find Son's illness and cure is difficult. It was/is a long journey with many lows and highs along the way. When Son reached kindergarten, which is all day here, he began to receive frowny faces on his daily charts. This was not a total shock, here I mention what a talker he has always been. But, I decided to be proactive, make an appt. with the teacher and get to the bottom of the issue. She was nice, and we began a relationship - err I guess. As my sister pointed out I was showing that we were involved more than looking for an answer, as the problem was a fairly typical kindergarten issue - chatty.

Eventually, Son was placed on a special daily report sheet and by Christmas he was not at a table with other students, but sitting in a desk alone. What offense had caused Son to be separated from the pack? Well: he answered without raising his hand, he played with his pencil and scissors during instruction, he rocked in the chairs. At one conference she actually brought 2 of his pencils that he had chewed beyond all recognition - she was very upset, I thought it was funny. Son reported that he had to do those things because, "all she does is talk talk talk."

I was agreeable and polite.

First grade: More of the same. All the teachers and staff agreed he was a "very sweet and smart boy." But, he continued to be separated from the pack. You know the kid who has his name said every 15 minutes or so. The one that you don't want to be caught playing with, or the teacher might see that you're not perfect too. This was the year he began to be sick - a lot. Headaches, stomach aches, anything nonspecific that would possibly keep him home. He actually threw-up at parent drop-off. More meetings, more of the same. He is up and down. We don't think he is ADHD, but there are issues every day. What issues? talking, yelling out the answers, off task during teaching, finishing his work (too fast) and going under the table, pulling on his clothes, rocking in his chair....

I was agreeable and polite.

This was the year, I thought "boo-hoo. I teach middle schoolers who call out the answers, don't sit still and tune out lessons - BIG DEAL!" But, he was miserable daily - so: I asked for an evaluation for hypersensitivity disorder by an OT. After all this was a child who would scream as if you were pulling out his finger nails when you were trimming them. A child that had pre-k teachers that asked me to buy Velcro shoes, because he would need his laces fixed (and perfect) 15 times a day, who than fixed his socks incessantly. It fit, but no go - post evaluation, he showed definite markers, but not enough to treat.

Second grade: ENOUGH I thought. we are not spending another year in misery...(yeah right)