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Special Needs




When we adopted Philip in 2001, his special need was 2 holes in his heart (ASD/VSD). That need had already been addressed in Thailand. He came to us “healthy”. But Philip has allot of special needs not listed on his adoption records. We have been spending years trying to figure out why Philip has so much trouble learning. In this long process we have learned that Philip has ADHD, an auditory processing problem, and a visual processing problem. I sat with him today as he did his math homework. His class moves very slowly. They are finally doing numbers larger then 10. This is a problem for Philip because he only has 10 fingers. He has trouble memorizing things. The information goes in, but the brain just will not record the message. There is progress but it is slow and frustrating.

Today Juergen will be taking Thomas to a clinic for additional diagnostics. We are sure he has ADHD. Last night I wrote a list of traits I believe describe Thomas. When you look at the list of ADHD traits, Thomas is the list. He has 11 of 12 possible ADHD traits. The exception is Thomas can focus on a task for a long time (like building Lego). I’m very frustrated with Thomas. Last week, Juergen gave him a paper (a teacher’s evaluation for the ADHD appointment). Thomas still did not give the teacher the paper. Perhaps this is proof enough he has a problem. We pay allot of money every month for homework help. He finishes his homework but fails to turn it in. This happens over and over again. I know his grades will be very bad again. It is so frustrating!!!! I say give the boy drugs! It is time to try drugs! He is a smart boy but can not follow through on anything.

Am I discouraged? No I am not discouraged. Last year at this time I was discouraged. I could see my sons had a problem, but I was totally in the dark about the cause or treatment of the problem. We are getting pretty close to a diagnosis. It will take years, maybe a life time to treat their special needs. But at least we are getting close to knowing what we can do. There are things that can be done. I’m not discouraged. You can not define a person by their disabilities. You need to look at their abilities too. Hopefully we can help both boys overcome their disabilities so their real gifts (and there are many) can shine through.

Comments

Jill W said…
Oh Amy, I am glad you are getting closer to a real diagnosis. My nephew struggled for years with teachers saying he was lazy--didn't apply himself--didn't care about his school work--etc. FINALLY in 8th grade the Dr. put him on an ADD med. It has worked wonders!!! His grades went from Ds to As & Bs. It's just sad that it took 8 years of schooling to get it figured out.
3:34 PM
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