Adik B has been attending speech and occupational therapy weekly for the past 2 months. He had been diagnosed as having ADD, a syndrome that characterized short attention span and hyperactivity which is so apparent in Adik B's behaviour. However it is too early to tell if he has ADHD as well since he doesn't exhibit extreme symptoms associated with ADHD.
Alhamdulillah for this diagnosis. Now that we know it for sure, we just need to do the therapies recommended to ensure that he will be able to talk normally like any other kids his age do. That was our primary concern. In my humble opinion, healthy kids are supposed to be active mentally and physically. Its just that Adik B has extra dosage of activeness in his body and extra fitness is all I need to keep up with him. I don't need to go to a gym to have work-outs. He is the work-out! *LOL*
Adik B has very little eye-contact which is why he has developed a delay in speech. According to his speech therapist, babies and toddlers learn to speak through imitating the movements of our lips when we communicate with them. Since attending the therapies, we discovered that Adik B uses both hands to do simple tasks like drawing or stacking objects whereby at his age, he should have one hand dominant either right or left. He is able to understand and follow instructions though need to be told repeatedly with a stern voice.
We have limit the toys at home to just two or three sets as too many toys can distract him from focusing. Even his favorite cartoons like Tom & Jerry had to be restricted as we found out that non-responsive cartoons (cartoons with very little or no dialogue at all) attracts Adik B like a bee to a honey. No wonder he was so engrossed when watching cartoons like Tom & Jerry, Mr Bean, Pink Panther, Shaun the Sheep and the likes. I have been guilty of feeding him too much of them. Its the only way to distract him when I need a breather. My bad.
Since undergoing therapies, there is some improvement in the way Little B behaves or responds. He has taken in with drawing spiral O's and straight lines experimenting with different hues of colors and he did it with finesse. He really enjoyed it very much. But 10 minutes is all he can take it and after that he's back to his usual bag of antics and trashing the house. *LOL*
We are planning to enrol him in a kindy next year. It doesn't matter so much if he couldn't grasp ABC or count 123 perfectly. We'll just take one step at a time. Right now, what matters most is for him to learn to socialize with kids his age and have fun. His toilet-training is excellent which is another factor we think he's ready for kindy. The only thing is, will there be any kind teacher out there who's brave enough to keep up with him? *LOL*
