HIS FIRST DAY

Yesterday was my son's first day with the special therapist. I have hired a therapist twice a week to assist my son with his inattention problem. The program lasts for 1 1/2 hours each visit. I wasn't there to see how things were, but then I talked to my son and went through the first report.

The report basically says that my son ability to focus is still not under his continous control. She gave him toys that will help his ability to focus, yet she did not leave me a message the part that I have to do with my son. I truly believe that she can't handle everything within such a short period and she needs us as a helping hand.

Yesterday, as I got home, my son and I spent sometimes in my room to read his school assignment. I asked him to read twice and he was complaining. Despite the fact that he didn't like the idea to read it again, he made progress on the second try.

As I rode in the bus this morning, I realized how ignorant I had been last nite with my son. Instead of focusing on reading it, I had better focus on his understanding of the reading material. I should have asked him to draw and made a role play out of it. Eeghhhh..... how could I turn to be so ignorant!!

INFORMATION...INFORMATION...INFORMATION

Tempo magazine 26 September - 2 Oktober 2011 edition, covers a two page story on ADHD, under the title The Bouncing Ball in the Class Room. The feature covers inattention as the main symptoms that need to be intervened. The people who were interviewed were basically psychiatrists who major in ADHD. They provide their professional knowledge and opinion on ADHD.

The article expressed the concerned about the number of ADHD patients that has been stated to cover only 3-5% out of the children population. A recent survey (held on December 2010 to Juni 2011) reveals more than 26,2% of children in Jakarta suffers from ADHD. The high populated children with ADHD have not received proper care. It is either parents do not understand ADHD and blamed the child of being ill mannered, or parents are ashamed to accept the fact that their children suffer from ADHD or there aren't too many professionals who can diagnose the symptoms of ADHD. In my case it was the latter.

I have been taking my son to the pediatric and to a neurologist as well as to a number of psychologists, they all said that my son seems to be "normal" ( I hate this categorization). It was later on when he's alredy 7 years the same neurologist told me that something is wrong with my son and the same pediatrician wanted to give my son medication. As the development of a child brain is slowing down at the age of 7, I realized that I had to spend more effort on his intervention. This shouldn't have happened if only the media or the department of health would have paid a little bit attention on such issues. It is the public right to get proper information on growing issues. Don't they believe that children are the future generation? During the earthquake in Japan, all efforts were primarily aimed at supporting children since they realized that children are their future.

I'm not a beginner with the internet, yet, I could hardly find any informative stuff on ADHD from Indonesia in the internet. I do to some extent but most of them break my hope for they told you that ADHD children tend to be drug addicts, deal with crimes and all the negative stuff. I prefer to read information from other advanced countries for they give me information and a bit of solution, since the real solution is unreachable due to the distance.

I have to thank Tempo for providing quite an informative feature on ADHD. They even broadcasted the fact of the surveys and give information on the very few school that will accept ADHD student. So far, I only know one that specializes in learning difficulties in Sekolah Pantara and Sekolah Dasar Pela Mampang.

As for me, it was really reliefing to know that we do have some good professionals who specialize in ADHD. Some of the names are mentioned in Tempo. I searched for the name on the internet and registered my son for consultation next Saturday for this Saturday I have to be out of town.

Finally, I still keep the hope that my eldest daughter who majors in graphic design would work on information on ADHD for her final project paper. She could contribute a lot to so many parents.

STUMBLING BLOCKS

I have never believed that life proceed without upheavel. All that is smooth is nothing but a fatamorgana. It appears as if it is smooth for many reasons. Either we don't know much about it, or we imagine things the way we expect them to be, ignoring the facts. The program that I designed for my son has to face stumbling blocks. The fact that I work and has to be out of town at least once a month or twice a month have disturbed the progress of my program.

Last week, I had to go to Bandung for my work. I had to be there for 3 nights but I made sure that I stayed only two nights. But those two nights had altered some of the programs. This week end I have to be in Yogya, again for two nights. This means I have to arrange a new time slot for his program. Next week I will be away for another 3 nights. Hopefully I can rearrange everything so that he won't be behind in his school work.

CONSISTENCY

Behavior formation has the urgency to include consistency! No matter how excellent the programs are, or no matter how good you are in guiding the programs, it will fall into pieces unless you add consistency into it.

Reward system for my son has been developed together with him. Lately he's been asking me for a new bike. I promise him that I will buy him a new bike if he manages to collect 50 stars. Each star represents his achievement in one subject area. Everyday if he manages to finish one or two subject areas he will get the stars. I have been implementing this reward system and it works quite well. I need to manage the consistency so that it will impact his behavior. If he manages to get 50 stars within a month I will consider it as excellent. For 50 stars in a month indicates that he review 2 subjects in a day. That will be enough to catch up for his lessons.

My son seems to enjoy the program. He begins to see the stars as his aim in studying. I have the intention to include sport to be part of the program. It will serve as an indicator to his strength. As for me, I begin to see the other side of my son. Instead of his inattention and hyperactivity, he can be managed if we show our patience for he now has a motivation, a reason to do his best, though it is still a very short term reason and a material based reason. I am hoping I could accelerate his motivation further as it touches his existence, a reason for living, a reason to become a better person as to be able to contribute to life. Consistency will lead him to reach for his real stars.

NEUROTRANSMITTERS

Neurotransmitters are chemicals that transmit messages from one neuron to another. Human brain comprises 50 neurotransmitters that connect separated billions of nerve cells in the brain. Neurotransmitters can directly or indirectly affect neurons of the brain, affecting behavior. Norepinephrine and dopamine are neurotransmitters responsible for ADHD. While norepinephrine is exicitatory neurotransmiters, dopamine is inhibitor. ADHD are caused by imbalances between the two and play a large role in attention and focus.

The picture and the following process depict the mechnism of impulse transmission taken from mental disorder encyclopedia:

Neurotransmitters are chemical that transmit messages from one nerve cell (neuron) to another. The never impulse travels fro the first nerve cell through the axon-a single smooth body arising from the nerve cell-to the axon terminal and the synaptic knobs. Each synaptic know bommunicates with a dendrite or cell body of another neuron, and the synaptic knobs contain neurovesicles that store and release neurotransmitters. The synapse lies between the the synaptic knob and the next cell. For the impulse to continue traveling across the synapse to reach the next cell, the synaptic knobs release the neurotransmitter into that space, and the next nerve cell is stimulated to pick up the impulse and continue it.

Understanding of the mechanism can help prescription of medication for ADHD. Based on Wikipedia an ADHD patient requires psychostimulant medications such as asmethylphenidae (Ritalin/Concerta), dextroamphetamine (Dexedrine), and Adderall (a mixture of dextroaphetaine and racemic amphetamine salts) to help increase levels of norepinephrine and dopamine.

Not much do I know about ADHD and the medication used to treat the patient. I hold strongly to the view that I wont use any medication for my son.

TIME MANAGEMENT

Today my son had to do his arithmetic homework. My son had been joining the KUMON class ever since he was 5 years. He has gone through number recognition, addition, subtraction and currently he's doing multiplication. He has been quite good in all those separate levels. But problems appear when he has to apply them in real life which in this case mix all the levels in one case.

Being an ADHD patient, my son has problem with his short term memory. Every time he moves to the next level and is busy with that level, he forgets the previous level. As with Arithmetic, he remember the subtraction and multiplication but he forgets everything about addition. As soon as he sees cases with addition he claims right away that he doesn't understand it. I'm still trying to find out how to deal with it.

Aside from the above problem, I manage to find a way out for his time management in doing his work. I read somewhere in the internet that you have to control an ADHD patient focus with a time limit. I try it with my son today. He loves competition, so I challenge him to finish his homework within a time frame and if he wins, we will be doing a game this afternoon. To my amazement he could finish his homework 15 minutes beyond the set time. I am very happy for normally he does it longer.

Time limit is a good tool to make him focus on his homework. Time management is a good tool to help him focus. Since he wins, we both agree on reward scheme. I understand that a long term reward scheme doesn't have any impact on ADHD children, therefore I develop a small rewards that will lead to a big reward. We both agree on the stars that he could gain every time he finishes his work within the time limit.

We both sat in front of the computer and developed the forms. He needs to collect 50 stars to get a new bike to replace the old one. Today he collected 2 stars because he can finish his arithmetic and language lessons on time. We both had a chance to read a story about the invisible alligators that I found on the net. I know that I have to find a story related to the program of improving his inattentiveness. For the time being I took that story simply because he likes it.

Thank you son for making my day!

EXTRA... EXTRA...EXTRA

My son's therapist dropped by today. She wanted to see my son's behavior at home. We then got involved in a discussion about my son. It seems that we both agree that my son suffers from Attention Deficit Disorder with mild hyperactivity. She added some of her assumptions. She believes that going to an international school has added my child confusion and my son doesn't suffer from dyslexia.

The next step she proposed a home schooling program for my son. With her background in education for children with special needs, she is willing to help my son. In her opinion, my son will have more problems when he sits in the fourth grade later. I agree with her though not entirely.

I decided to discuss it with my husband prior to my approval to her proposal.

My husband suggested me to take the two times a week program instead of three times for one main reason: my son's education requires extra money, extra effort and extra time. He has taken extra classes for arithmatic, swimming lesson, extra chinese lessons and now we have the inattention intervention program twice a week. His days are full with extra this, extra that and extra who knows what.

SWIMMING

This morning we went swimming. Our target for swimming is preparing my son for the next level. We are motivating him to join a swimming club with the understanding that swimming is his passion. We are hoping that he could gain his self confidence through it.
The teacher began to push him to do the breaststroke. In the beginning he refuse to do so, for he is comfortable with the freestroke. The teacher persuade by encouraging him to compete with most people who can swim freestroke. The teacher seemed to press the right button, for my son right away swam in breaststroke.

My son loves to compete and win. It's both positive and negative. In sport he'll manage this enthousiasms well, but at school, it might turn to be a factor that will pull him down. Learning difficulties that accompany his ADHD made him learn differently than other children. He requires more time than any other children, so is also with the method of learning. I have to make sure that his schoolwork is chopped into small pieces and made him work on it. I also have to make sure that learning is fun. Therefore I have included games as part of the process of learning.

Today the therapist will come to our house to see how my son behaves at school. She promised to be at our place at 10. My son will have his chinese class at 2 o'clock. It's gonna be a hectic day for him, but hectic is the exact word for his remedy.

PREDOMINANTLY INATTENTIVE

All the professionals that get involved in my son's difficulties have given me contradictories assessments. While waiting for their formal reports I'm doing anyways I can to find it out. I found diagnostic criteria issued by the American Psychologist Association, and compare my son's symptoms against the criteria. Each criteria is graded H for High; M for Medium and L for Low. A couple of criteria are not graded for my son doesn't show such symptoms.

1) Six (or more) of the following symptoms of inattention have persisted for at least 6 months to a degree that is maladaptive and inconsistent with developmental level:

Inattention

a) Often fails to give close attention to details or makes careless mistakes in schoolwork, work, or other activities (H)

b) Often has difficulty sustaining attention in tasks or play activities (H)

c) Often does not seem to listen when spoken to directly (H)

d) Often does not follow through on instructions and fails to finish schoolwork, chores, or duties in the workplace (not due to oppositional behavior or failure to understand instructions) (H)

e) Often has difficulty organizing tasks and activities (H)

f) Often avoids, dislikes, or is reluctant to engage in tasks that require sustained mental effort (such as schoolwork or homework) (H)

g) Often loses things necessary for tasks or activities (eg, toys, school assignments, pencils, books, or tools) (H) h)Is often easily distracted by extraneous stimuli (H)

i) Is often forgetful in daily activities (H)

2) Six (or more) of the following symptoms of hyperactivity-impulsivity have persisted for at least 6 months to a degree that is maladaptive and inconsistent with developmental level:

Hyperactivity

a) Often fidgets with hands or feet or squirms in seat (M)

b) Often leaves seat in classroom or in other situations in which remaining seated is expected

c) Often runs about or climbs excessively in situations in which it is inappropriate (in adolescents or adults, may be limited to subjective feelings of restlessness) (L)

d) Often has difficulty playing or engaging in leisure activities quietly (M)

e) Is often "on the go" or often acts as if "driven by a motor" (M)

f) Often talks excessively (H)

Impulsivity

g) Often blurts out answers before questions have been completed (L)

h) Often has difficulty awaiting turn

i) Often interrupts or intrudes on others (eg, butts into conversations or games)

My son appears to suffer from Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder, Predominantly Inattentive Type. We'll see what the experts have to say!

LITTLE STARS

Today my son had a quiz on language. This time it's Indonesian. Fortunately the teacher informed me ways before the quiz, so I have time to prepare my son. When he's doing his work, I always stay close to him, to help him focus, to redirect him to the page that has to worked on. A reminder that he has to go on to the next part, instead of getting carried away too far from the topic.

When he's reading I suggested him to use his finger to trace the lines so that he doesn't get lost. You'll notice the difference. Without the assitance of his finger, he manage to read the first syllable and guess the rest. He read the word "bilamana" as "bilangan". His level of vocabulary and semantic mastery has not brought him to the ability to make a proper guess based on the first syllable. The automatic word generator function has not fully developed yet or maybe need more assistance to develop. Again I'm dependent on the professionals to help me see his problem from a holistic point of view.

Another little progress that makes me very happy is his ability to express himself. In the past, if I asked him how he was doing in school, he would not respond. He just shrugged his shoulder and left or pretended that he didn't hear my question. But last nite I asked him how he was doing in school and he said, he could do 10 questions out of 12 during the quiz. At this stage I don't care about his grades for I'm fixing his learning process. Grades will only serve as a thermometer to check the temperature of his learning process.

Let's celebrate the stars you manage to collect in your bucket this week end son!

SPORT

Children with ADD tend to have a stronger right brain hemisphere. This is a good point to start building his confidence.So far the right brain hemisphere is also my son's strength. At home he has gained a number of trophies for games that require physical activities. I take him swimming every Saturday and he used to play football on Saturday as well. He enjoys doing sport. although it's not easy when he's moody.

Lately my son shows a strong enthousiasm on swimming. He loves to compete and he's doing good in free style. When week end is approaching he reminds me of our swimming time. His motivation is an achievement. We need to climb up the next ladder so that his motivation is not going to die out.

My friend told me that during one of the show on local television there is a down syndrome swimmer that could win the gold medal in International competition in Athens. I found out that the girls name is Stephani Handoyo. She goes to an ordinary school and she has the ability to play the piano as well. It is not easy for children with imbalanced brain hemispheres to play the piano. Two thumbs up for her mother who dedicate her entire life to develop her daughter.

As for son's musical ability, I probably would put my son in a percusion class. Just give him the chance to explore the world.

IT'S NOT EASY

I know it's not easy to define what's disturbing my son. I expected, at least, that professionals that come from one clinic could probably collaborate and decide my son's problems. Yesterday my son is supposed to follow a therapy for the first one. It took him almost 2 hours in total. I wasn't with him, so I heard the news from my daughter and through my phone conversation with the therapist.

The therapist said my son doesn't have ADHD nor does he has dyslexia. Instead his intellectual quotient is a bit beyond standard. Every mother, including me, takes this as a punishment.

Throughout my conversation with her, I explained all the details of my observation. Guess what? She sounded like she doubt her own conclusion. I might have redirect her opinion as an impact of my refusal to her punishment or she didn't have sufficient information to arrive to her conclusion. In the end of our conversation, she began to redirect her conclusion.

It is not easy to find out about my son. As with me, I'm not a professional, I'm waiting for, in fact I'm paying for professionals to let me know his problems. I kinda get lost in this game of life.

DSM-IV-TR

Today I get to know a new terminology related to ADHD, DSM-IV-TR. It is an acronym that stands for Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) a common language and criteria to standardized classification of mental disorder, developed by American Psychology Association. Yup, categorizing people is the main paid occupation of professionals.

This DSM professionals classify ADHD into three main clusters, symptoms of either inattention (type A) and hyperactivity (type B) and a combination of both (Type C). Symptoms of inattention (Type A symptoms) include an inability to remain focused on any type of task, difficulty organizing behavior and planning action, as well as ease of distraction. Hyperactivity-impulsivity symptoms or Type B symptoms include an inability to control voluntary motor activity and spontaneous generation of socially-inappropriate behaviors. Type C symptoms is a combination of Type A and B. Research indicated that ADHD occurs mostly to male rather than female. The symptoms may continue to manifest into adulthood but the symptoms lessen and remain only 15% at the age 25.

Literature mentioned two main causes of ADHD, genetic and brain lesion. My son seems to suffer from perinatal brain lesion because of Hypoxic-Ischemia. Hypoxia refers to a lack of oxygen in the blood while ischemia refers to a reduction in blood supply to a particular tissue. HI can occur during perinatal phase, including the childbirth. I have a vague recollection of what the doctor told me once. He had mentioned something about birth trauma which didn't make any sense at all to me at that time. Aparently it is the Hypoxic-Ischemia. The absence of oxygen and blood impacted the death of the brain cells and caused ADHD.

One of the impacted area is the Prefrontal Cortex (PFC). The functions carried out by the prefrontal cortex area is executive functions. Executive function relates to abilities to differentiate among conflicting thoughts, determine good and bad, better and best, same and different, future consequences of current activities, working toward a defined goal, prediction of outcomes, expectation based on actions, and social "control" Other impact affected the sttriatum, the major input station of the Basal Ganglia System. The basal ganglia are associated with a variety of functions, including voluntary motor control, procedural learning relating to routine behaviors or "habits" such as eye movements, and cognitive emotional functions. Experimental studies show that the basal ganglia exert an inhibitory influence on a number of motor systems, and that a release of this inhibition ‘s permits a motor system to become active. The "behavior switching" that takes place within the basal ganglia is influenced by signals from many parts of the brain, including the prefrontal cortex which plays a key role in executive functions.

Hah... it took me a couple of days before I could gather all the information. The above case is my understanding on my son’s case and the above information need to be confirmed by the neurologist It shed light into my perspective on my son’s behavioral issues. He’s seeing the therapist tomorrow. Therapist deals with his inability to stay focus. We’ll see what happen.

Image taken from http://www.empowher.com/media/reference/conduct-disorder

PATIENCE

My life has turned so colorful as I raise my son. Today he has to do some homework for tomorrow, reading and math. According to the psychologist both are his weak points. So we started doing his homework at 7 and hoping it would last till 9. Again I used the standard studying hours.

We started with Math. I chose the corner of the room in which there were only my son and me. In the beginning I wanted to explain the answers but then he blurted right away saying that he knew the answer. So I let him worked on his own.

He kept on coming back to me to ask for explanations and since I was focusing myself on other things I easily lost my patience. My husband entered the room and joined us. I was busy talking to my husband and again I ignored my son. He came back again and again for some more explanations. I really lost my temper and shouted at him to work on his homework.

After a while I realized that he couldn't think properly because of my temper. He couldn't answer the easiest question simply because he was afraid of me.

Theoretically speaking, I know exactly that a mother is not supposed to loose her temper, but practically it's not easy. And patience is the utmost when dealing with ADHD children. I remember vaguely the lines that I read in some references: "The teacher will play a big role in teaching children with learning difficulties, however parents are the most. Therefore parents have to be in a healthy and good condition in order to help their ADHD child."

My son's nose was bleeding again so I sent him to bed. As I watched him going to sleep I regretted myself for not having enough patience. I'm sorry son!

THE INTERVENTION

I have set up a meeting with a friend yesterday. I wanted to develop a syllabus for my son. Who knows that syllabus could contribute to all other sons who have similar problems as my son. We met in a quite fancy restaurant. She was with her son, similar age to my son and resembles a lot to my son. That little boy was playing with his laptop in the corner beside his mom while I was sitting right in front of his mom.

She explained the methodology of developing a syllabus. I slowly digested her explanation and got a rough picture of the methodology. Just to make sure that my understanding is proper I began to explain how to introduce the methodology to my son's condition. I must say, yes, my elaboration is in accordance to the methodology. So happy I was that I went home and couldn't wait any longer to work on the syllabus. Unfortunately however, I bumped against the stumbling blocks.

The first block came from the fact that I haven't received any confirmation from the neurologist what my son's problems actually. No matter how firm I am with my son's situation I still have to count on any possibilities that is based on his professional (I hate this word ) judgments. The second block came from the fact that since I am not firm on the cause how could I define the intervention program for my son. The third, I definitely can start with the symptoms such as hyperactivity, attention and learning disabilities but how can I define the strategy and the program unless I know the main location of the problem that impacted his psychomotor hyperactivity?

My friend silently wrote down something on a piece of paper and showed it to me. She said, my son is just like your son.

ATTENTION DEFICIT HYPERACTIVITY DISORDER (ADHD)

When my son was only 2 years old, I saw strange symptoms. He could hardly control himself and when he was in anger it could last for hours. Later on I knew that it was called Tantrum. I decided to take him to a pediatrician and neurologist.

The pediatrician gave him some vitamins and since I didn't understand what they were all about, I ended it after the second or third bottle. The same pediatrician also found out that my son suffered from bronchitis and was infected by worms beside a severe nose bleeding (mimisan). Later I knew that all the symptoms led to anemia. The prescribed vitamins was basically zinc to support his brain development. The doctor has never told me that he suffers from ADD, but indirectly he said, whatever you call it, he has problems with his left brain development and we need to create balance out of the two brain hemispheres.

Then I took my son to the neurologist who at the beginning said that nothing was wrong with my son. He's perfectly okay. That was the news that every parents would love to hear. And that news also contributed to my decision to stop the vitamin from the pediatrician after the second or third bottle.

As five years have gone, I saw stronger symptoms that last longer than before. So I took my son to the same pediatrician and neurologist. The same pediatrician gave my son medication and the same vitamin. I only gave my son the vitamin. When I went back to the neurologist, he sensed something is wrong with my son and suggested me to take him to the psychologist.

I took my son to three different psychologists even before the neurologist asked me to do so. When he was 2 years old, the psychologist told me that there was nothing wrong with him. Again this is the news that put me in the comfort zone and made me unaware of the long term impacts of my ignorance. However, the inner me was a bit disturbed for the symptoms were still there and I decided to get a second opinion and went to another psychologist. This time she suggested me to have an IQ check and gave me an address for my child to have a fingerprint test. I didn't know what it was and took my son to have one. The result didn't answer my main questions but then he gave me a series of information about my son, what he's good at and what kinds of potential he has. With this, I decided to stop finding any further information about my son's health for the symptoms were slowing down (I should have said dormant). However there was a time when I took another psychologist home to observe my son and she gave me the suggestion to put my son under a hypnotherapy. I didn't believe her and decided not to continue with her.

The last psychologist was suggested by the neurologist. She observed and talked to my son for almost an hour and arrived to the conclusion that my son suffered from dyslexic problems.

There are many mixed up feelings. I went to some literature on ADD and Dyslexia and quite confirm that my child was having a brain development problem and I felt guilty for not knowing it earlier. His lack of brain development impacted his behavior and indicated ADD symptoms and impacted his learning ability, specifically his reading ability and therefore he was sentenced as dyslexic patience.

I have learned many things through the process of understanding my son's health. To begin with, I felt sorry for some professions that are driven by commercial purpose and prescribed patience to follow programs that they probably get a particular percentage out of it. Other human life is affected by their decisions. It disturb me a lot and I regret this facts, however life has to go on. Finding solutions for my son is more important than thinking of their irresponsible actions.

I have decided to find out my son's strength and develop them further rather than focusing my effort on turning my son to be just like any other ordinary children. People are categorized by those who hold the power , according to Foucault. Profession is just one of those people who has the power to categorize others. The fact that they could not explain why ADD people like Einstein and Galileo could flourish out of their creativity, is ignored. The potentialities of ADD children are ignored, and they focus on their shortcomings.

My son, you don't have to be like any other children, you can be yourself who could be better than any other children.

DYSLEXIA

I arrived late and waited outside her room. My son was inside. After a couple of minutes the psychologist peeked through the door and invited me to get inside. That was probably the longest moment ever. She looked straight into my eyes and said: He suffers from dyslexia. I do know that word and the meaning, but my knowledge about it is very shallow. So she begin explaining it to me.

"Dyslexia is learning disability caused by reading problems. A child is said to suffer from Dyslexia when the child has problems with reading. There are three proposed cognitive subtypes of dyslexia: auditory, visual and attentional. Dyslexia is not intellectual problems for they are mostly children with average or above average IQs. Einstein is just one example of a dyslexic child. Your son suffers from auditory dyslexia."

I sat there in denial to her statement. Deep down in my heart I objected strongly: "You cant do that to my son. You cant punish him further." As soon as I began to gain my senses, I asked her tons of questions about it. Basically my questions were directed to the possibility of overcoming his dyslexic problems and made him be just like any other kids.

As I arrived home and began to search for some information about Dyslexia, my mind flew to a name: Foucault. He mentioned the fact that people are categorized. The metodhology to categorized people is based on knowledge determined by power. A doctor has the power to define normal to sick. As with Dyslexia, people are ignoring the fact that Dyslexic children has their own talent compared to other ordinary children. Some are really good in sport, some in music and some other in art. I need to explore my son's strength instead of focusing on his weakness. Move on Son.

IN THE BEGINNING

He was more than just wild. He gave me a sharp look and I dont see any signs that he's going to cease talking back to me. This is it. I have to see the expert.

I took my son to the doctor who is at the same time a pscychologist. He gave my son some medication and another bottle of vitamin which contains mostly zinc. I went through the internet to see the impact of the medication and decided not to give my son the medication. So I took my son to a neurologist nearby my house. I had explained the entire situation then he invited my son to get inside. He had a conversation with my son. Some questions were excellently answered, some were not.

He asked my son to write his own name, my name and his dad's name. He could manage to write his name and my name. Then he asked my son to do substraction and addition. He could finish the substraction then he said, he forgets everything about addition. Then the doctor gave him some instructions and asked him to follow them. It is rather complicated I must say. This time he managed to do it well. Then he told me that my son need to see the psychologist. So I went to the front desk and set for an appointment.

On the way home, my mind was wondering about my son. What's wrong with you? What do I have to do to help you? I took you to the same doctor 5 years ago and he said that there was nothing wrong with you. I took you to the psychologist and she said that there was nothing wrong with you. I took you to another psychologist and she said that you had to follow an IQ test. I took you to the fingerprint test and he said everything is balanced with your life and he showed me your strength and weakness.

What is so wrong with you son? Lord help me out, show me the things that need to be done for his sake. I know it's gonna be a very long and tiring journey. Im ready to face it. This is just the beginning, there is always a beginning which sometimes ends up with no end.