(more) Some Other Stuff

David at MMO

One follow-up from the last entry, about our Thanksgiving trip to Illinois: At one point Simon, David, Chloe and her mom and I were sitting together in the family room and Chloe was chattering quite a bit J about (something, I don’t remember). She recently turned two, and I heard Simon explain to her mom, “Chloe has words but David doesn’t really have any yet. He has [Simon imitation of David’s babbling].” I didn’t say anything at the time, but the next day I reminded him of this conversation and asked him if he knows why this is. He initially said he didn’t know and I could’ve told him the answer, I suppose, but I decided to give it one more try. “Well, take a guess why Chloe knows words and David doesn’t,” and my boy immediately said, “Because Chloe doesn’t have Down syndrome and David does.” We affirmed this answer, and then talked for a while about all the different ways David communicates with us even without words (pointing, shaking his head, reaching and laughing). Simon is a smart little guy, and I think kids usually understand way more about this kind of thing than adults give them credit for.

(I also like the way he put it, not that David has Down syndrome and Chloe doesn’t, but that Chloe does not have something David has. I am choosing to think of this as, Simon sees Down syndrome as a little something extra, not a deficit? He’s already said –- this was a while back, when I was explaining why so many people come to the house to work with David -- he wants Down syndrome too. So I guess that’s it: something extra that David has, and like any big brother in the world, Simon wants it too)

Speaking of Simon and attention, Simon was recently diagnosed with Attention Deficit Disorder. Matt, Simon’s two teachers and I all completed the little checklists after his teacher reported his attentional difficulties are more extreme than those of other kids in the class, and she’s afraid they might interfere with his learning (Her exact words, “I’ve never seen anything quite like it before,” which is not necessarily a parent’s dream to hear). He does seem to have a great deal of difficulty staying focused on … well, anything, really, but specifically homework. And writing. And completing tasks. And … yeah, anything. Matt handled the appointment with the pediatrician (she is the greatest) and said she does what she does best, realistically looking at the challenges but not freaking out about it. She gave us a prescription for Concerta, but is totally comfortable with us taking the lead on it – doing it or not, finding out and trying out more stuff before we try meds … the diagnosis is helpful because it gives us a different lens through which to view his problems, and an official reason to say (to ourselves and others), hey he doesn’t necessarily have as much control over this all the time, now let’s figure out how we can help him succeed in Scenario A, B, and C. We already have some ideas to shut out some noise at home during homework time, and we’ll meet with the school folks after the holidays for some ideas in the classroom to help him to focus.