Salut Pierre -- thank you so much for stopping by and for asking. Hmmm...it's a long answer -- but I'm going to try to make it somewhat brief. First thing to recall is, I find this out when Nathan is quite young -- 8-9 years old.
When children are that young, they trust and rely entirely on, us the parents.
So me, being a teacher -- there's a lot that I do to help my kids with the idea of finding a way to help them learn.
Routines, repetition (OMG -- repetion of so many things that I needed/wanted him to learn), therapy -- and the part I think (because we've talked a little about this, so I believe I know how you feel about it) -- but medication. The medication was one of the tools that noticeably helped me at least to get his brain to focus on what we needed him to.
The older he got -- I tried to normalize ADHD -- I made nathan aware of what things he said and did that alarmed or concerned me. So I began to use mindfulness A LOT. I drew his attention to the way he thinks and feels --I asked him SO much to tell me what was going on in his head.
To be honest -- often times, I'm just perplexed because an ADHD mind is different - and it helped to hear his side.
And funny enough -- I find myself at times doing things that I swear are on the spectrum. l laugh to myself and I say, hmmm, Nat you have some ADHD!
The HARDEST part of it is the social skills -- and to be honest Pierre, I feel powerless at times and quite frustrated...but then I stop and I think, "look back, look at where we have come...give it time..."
It's a journey -- like all things, isn't it? And truth is, even with the similarities of ADHD from person to person who both have it --you ALSO have your own unique traits and personalities. So it makes it hard sometimes to say -- is this just my son being him? Or is it from one of his diagnosis?
It's our human nature to seek an answer -- and that's a good thing in that I feel, education and knowledge are empowering. But sometimes, we have to balance it with acceptance of the unknown...
How?
THAT my friend -- I don't know how to answer now...
Okay - I did say I was going to brief, and I failed.
I'm going to hit "respond" without editing this -- so please pardon errors or lack of clarity!
Much love to you -- thanks for asking mon ami!!
