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Wednesday, January 1, 2014

Signs

"Hardship often prepares an ordinary person for an extraordinary destiny." - C.S. Lewis

Even when J was a baby he would sometimes appear drawn into himself. During these instances he would stare in front of him with a slight frown, looking very serious. We always joked that he will probably become a minister due to his seriousness. 

When J was about three years old, his kindergarten teacher indicated that he frequently didn't react to instructions or even voices for that matter. She suggested that we take him for a hearing test. We knew J didn't have hearing problems but we took him for tests anyway and the audiologist confirmed that J's hearing was normal. Everybody else's response was: ... "come on he is a 3 year old child for goodness sake!". 

In April during his fifth year, another teacher indicated that J was very slow in completing tasks, did not follow instructions through and had problems with attention. We took J to a therapist, who indicated that, except for some minor reflex underdevelopment, there were no serious problems. Everybody else's response was: ... "come on he is a 5 year old child for goodness sake!". 

We noticed that J would have spasms during his sleep. For example, a tell-tale sign that J fell asleep was a single initial shoulder jerk. More spasms (shoulders, arms legs) followed during a sleep cycle, which varied in intensity and frequency.

At about age six, occasional bed-wetting started but there was no pattern we could detect. And in anyway - J was just a small child for goodness sake!


“Isn't it funny how day by day nothing changes, but when you look back, everything is different...” - C.S. Lewis