My Son has ADD
My son is my oldest child, so the general rule is that is the experimental child, right? As a new parent you really have no clue what you are doing, you just slog through it and hopefully are willing to learn as you go.
He was colicky and allergic in his infancy, I did the best I could but really I had no clue. He was held and loved and rocked and we just kept moving forward. He had the greatest imagination from the time he could utter sounds. He became obsessed with cowboys and horses. He learned his first words from John Wayne movies, not always the best first words to say!
When he was just 3 the well…
I am the Mother of a Tourettes child
When my daughter Emma was little we thought she was quirky. She always walked on tippy toes, she always told you exactly what she was thinking, she always talked in absolutes like I never and you always. She was pretty even tempered but had to do things in a certain order or way, shake up her routine and her day could be ruined. Emma was sick a fair amount, she had tummy troubles and aches and pains that no doctor could figure out. She missed a fair share of school but when she was there she worked hard and did well.
We had no idea what was wrong with Emma or why she was sick so much, but we knew she was honest and hated being sick so we were patient with her. We learned quickly that getting enough sleep was the most important thing we could do for her. Some days when she woke up ill I would send her back to bed to sleep. By the time she woke up again she would feel pretty good and I would send her to school for the rest of the day. As she got older it became harder and harder for her to sleep through the night or to fall asleep in the first place, so constant ideas and trying new things became the norm.
As Emma got through Elementary and Middle school it became more and more apparent that she had issues that needed to be addressed. Emma was a funny, smart, talented kid who on occasion at school had to get up and straighten things on her teachers desk, had to stand up and twirl 3 times during a test, had begun having to repeat what a teacher shouted, boy did that go over well!…
The Roller Coaster that is Tourettes Syndrome
Living with Tourette Syndrome. Can it be done? Is it hard? Is it genetic? If I have it, will my children have it? Is there a relief? What causes it? Will it go away? Can it be treated? Cured?
These are all good questions. I've asked myself all of these at one point or another. You see, I have Tourettes.
A little background. I can remember the first time I realized something was wrong; I was in kindergarten. My teacher had a point system, we started out with a certain number of points each day and if we were bad or disruptive we lost a point. Every week we would learn a new letter of the alphabet. Then we would take turns drawing the letter on each others backs three times. One week our teacher decided we didn't need to draw the letter on the others backs so we had story time instead. I remember feeling....tense? Stressed? Agitated? I can't really explain it. I wanted, no, needed to - had to draw the letter on someone's back. We couldn't skip a letter. They all had to be drawn on someone's back. They had to. There was no exception. It could not be avoided. oh I tried to resist. Believe me I tried. But during story time that day my hand reached out and traced the letter J on the back of the kid next to me. He squirmed and complained and the teacher told me not to. But that was only once, it had to be done three times. So I did it a second time. This time I got my first warning. Once more and I would lose a point. But it had to be done. I was so close, I couldn't stop now. I tried so hard just to sit there. But it seemed as though I had no control. So I did it. Quick as I could. The last J on his back. And I lost my first ever point. I was distraught. I had never lost a point. Why couldn't I just keep my hands to myself like everyone else? This is very confusing to a six-year-old mind.…