Small Smiley Things

The range is actually 30-40% delayed thinking, functioning, planning, memory, organising… I believe this. Especially for my older two who amongst other challenges, have moderate to severe ADHD. It also matches the outcome my ten year old had after an assessment. Her emotional age was six years old yet she was ten. I hope it helps any other person out there to understand why their child is being more childish than they ‘should’ be. Why they lack common sense or logic that ‘should’ exist at their age. Obviously, some aren’t as lacking, and some are even more behind than 40%.

(ETA doing the hair of ADHD kiddies is an exercise in patience. You see other children absorbed in their tablets or iPads. Mine are absorbed. They recite what they’re watching. Especially Nalo. “I e is ie for pie.” She knows every line coming up. But they still move around soooo much. Given they cut a lot of their hair. We had no choice but to cut it all, so it’s SHORT. Trying to grab a hold of short hair is hard. Add a child who just as you have it, then sharply turns their head merely to see what the other is doing on their iPad even though they can hear it… (And yep, they all broke their noise canceling headphones. Even my poor son who needs them the most.)

Now, onto the smiley things. The things that make me smile!

My boy is the girls’ personal butler. His five year old sister used him the most.

I was working on closing the ends of wool journey. Haha, I call it a ‘journey’ because as with my locs, I learnt online. Someone coming here for just one head would cost R1000! Imagine all that money! Impossible. I’ll save our hair products myself. The girls kept finishing our sprays and moisturizers in one week or less. Breaking lids and emptying contents even onto the floor. And they creep into my room to get them even when I try hide them. It was constant “Let’s go to the mirror and comb our hair.” And they’d hate starting their school day because they hadn’t litter their hair to be puffy. Cue, the jumbo box wool braids to stop the madness till we can (for the THIRD time, resume locs and hope that this third time will see them never cutting their hair again.)

That was a much longer paragraph than planned! I asked him if he’s HAPPY that Nalo keeps asking him to make toast with peanut butter for her. Their appetites return with a vengeance after their ADHD meds wear off, so evening is hunger time! And my sweet boy goes up and down fetching bread, peanuts and raisins. He said he LOVES to feed his siblings. Ammy is a bit miffed. “Why him? Does she like HIS bread the most? Why doesn’t she ask ME?”😅

Another smiley one is our non speaker insisting on her older sister using her tablet in her wardrobe. Our schedule includes breaks where they each get their tablets and do educational apps or watch educational videos I’ve either created for them, or have downloaded for them. It’s been months of this. It’s crazy but cool. And her sister is totally happy with it. We all need some darkness and calm.🙂

The last smiley thing is Nalo’s absolute joy of learning. I posted two or three little snippets of our one class session. Besides thinking about her work, her brain (AuDHD) is running in multiple directions. I hear, “I love you” out of the blue and she tells me ‘completely unrelated to school or to the topic’ things.

But what was made me laugh was when I came out the bathroom and she proudly showed me all the pages of one of her reading books that she’d read while “waiting” for me to come out. I don’t know if she’d the right judge but I’d like to believe she did read everything correctly. 🙂 I truly hope she never stops enjoying school.