Kathy and Ed

by Ed Clark
(Norwood, Pa USA)

13 Year Old Son, In pre-k his teacher told us she believed he had delayed gross and fine motor skills. We said "How dare you",She Pointed us to early intervention so he wouldn't be lagging behind other kids his age when he entered Kindergarten.That worked out well and he seemed to be able to keep pace in development but always was the smallest, the slowest,and the one who finished last in physical challenges, if he finished at all. Had lousy eating habits and his pediatrician said to feed him healthy foods and he would eat it at some point when he got hungry. WRONG, he just wouldn't eat anything, finally they said give him anything he would eat just to get something into him.

Had him Evaluate ed at Childrens Hospital in Philadelphia. They had a full study team evaluate him for eating issues and concluded that he had poor eating habits that may or may not be food allergy related or tactile influenced.By the way in kindergarten he was evaluated as being a genius intellectually and the school let him get away not having to do most of the physical activities because of his intelligence. After Childrens Hospital eval he started physical and occupational therapy. He also received it in school, both kindergarten and grade school. At some point in school he started saying clothes didn't feel right, all tags needed to be cut off. Eventually he was allowed to wear sweat suites as they are the only thing that doesn't bother him. He's afraid to walk near railings on second floor of malls yet he can ride all the thrill rides at amusement parks. Had him take swimming lessons at the local Y but to take a bath or shower the water hurts or feels like pins and needles. Played organized soccer,baseball and bowling for a few years but he became embarrassed because he lagged behind other kids," Who can be mean". We let him drop out. He reads constantly and will finish a book in a day.

We pulled him out of mainstream school in the middle of 5th grade and now he does cyberschool. The school district was extremely happy because they wouldn't have to deal with him or his doting parents. He has asthma and numerous allergies and we were constantly battling with them to make sure he had access to his rescue inhaler and nebulizer. Had to file and get special permission for the right to carry an inhaler on him during the school day after the school nurse said he wasn't having an asthma attack and wouldn't let him use his rescue inhaler. 1 hour later we had to go to the school and take him to the emergency room to be treated for the next 4 hours to control the attack.

His handwriting is so bad that in 5th grade an outside evaluator told us that he probably will never write with any proficiency and would probably need a laptop to take notes. He can type 65 words a minute. He is currently finishing 7th grade with an average of 100 in all his courses.

His food variety consists of fast food chicken, cheeseburgers, Frenchfries, Mozzarella sticks,Pizza but only from 2 pizza shops,Chocolate frosted donuts, Milk with choc carnation in it ,and waffles. Smells can cause a meltdown so going out for diner is almost nil. Stress can cause a meltdown and if he can't get it under control a good day can go right down the drain. His doctor says that he believes that as he goes through puberty his internal "wiring" will straighten out. He goes to OT and PT every week. Take piano lesson which can sometimes be an issue because he's a perfectionist. He knows he has these issues and says he just wishes he were a normal kid.

His newest challenge will be dental. Just had dental work done, not a real treat as he "melted " having a a cleaning and 2 fillings done. will need braces. My wife has read everything she can get her hands on and seems to have a grip on dealing with it, I on the other hand have a hard time with it because if you look at him he looks like a normal kid. Talk to him and you can have an extremely normal and intelligent conversation. He play video games. Watches the tv shows kids his age watch. But to get him to do some things its a brick wall and at time I believe he uses it to get out of doing thing he doesn' want to do, only to find out later that it was a sensory thing and I'm the jerk or bully. I hope this site helps shed light on what my son is going through.