We had a peaceful day to appreciate the beauty around us, both seen and unseen. A hawk swung in low circles overhead, bringing Lee and me back to what really counted. My husband called out from across the way, and pointed up. Lee sensed who had really needed the help. Them…” she said, pointing at the couples in the distance. Lee reappeared and said, “Are they gone?” He and his family started their descent down the sloping rock. In a few minutes, the bee flew off, and the boy settled down. It was experience that taught my husband and me that the discipline of love, respect, and patience helped sensory meltdowns dissipate more quickly than commanding a child to stop.
They probably weren’t aware that the boy might have SPD or an underlying disorder, like ADHD, autism, or OCD, and felt overwhelmed by his reactions. Yet I understood the teachers’ criticism, too. This boy’s parents didn’t deserve criticism they deserved medals. It was hard not to overreact and try to stop it, especially in public. When Lee was little, spiders could cause a screaming attack, just like this one. What they didn’t know was that this was progress for my highly sensitive child. Strangers walking past us had done a double take, wondering why a teenage girl was acting so strangely. Lee had followed me on a path, hanging onto my sweatshirt from behind, eyes closed to avoid any sight of a web. I thought of a recent trip to a botanical garden with spider-laden paths around a lake.
I wondered if they, like us, had spent hours in therapy learning to go with the flow during sensory panic attacks. I watched the boy’s parents, who were staying calm and reassuring him the bee was going away. It seemed as if he had Sensory Processing Disorder (SPD) like Lee did, and couldn’t control his fear. The boy wasn’t a behavior problem at all. I felt the hairs bristle at the back of my neck. The boy screamed again, and the couples stood up. What were the chances that I, of all people, the mother of a child with sensory processing challenges, would overhear this in the middle of the Arizona desert? “That’s because those kids need more discipline it’s all the parents’ fault,” said private school teacher, giving a nod toward the boy’s parents. “I teach at a school for kids with behavior problems, and I don’t love it,” the other woman said, giving a disgusted look to the screaming boy. “I teach at a private school, and I love it,” one of the women said. She passed two couples perched nearby, and their conversation drifted over to me. Lee gave the boy a sympathetic look and moved away. How many times had we been in that situation with Lee? Although in her case, it was spiders. As we walked the face of a sloping rock, we heard a boy screaming, “Mommy!”Īt the top, we saw the boy, who looked about 12 years old, in terrible distress trying to avoid a bee. A few weeks ago, Lee, my husband, and I were on a hike in Arizona during spring break.
0 kommentar(er)
