I have a child with special needs. He was born premature, an eight-month medically fragile baby and was diagnosed with Global Developmental Delay Syndrome.
Yes we did everything. From early diagnosis, early interventions like Occupational Therapy and Speech Therapy. Whatever you might think of to tell me what to do, I've done it.
When you have a child with special needs, you'll get to meet a lot of medical specialists. From General Pediatrician to Developmental Pediatrician, Opthalmologist, Ortolaryngologist to different Therapists. Who wouldn't want answers and solutions to their child issues, right? It is hard, and it hurts.
My son is now 8 years old but he has a learning and understanding ability of a 5-6 years old boy. Yes he can understand some things that we say, but some are not. As to what GDD is all about, he is delayed in every aspect of a developing child like Gross-Motor skills, Fine-Motor Skills, Social Skills and Language Skills.
Yes he is talking, but as what the doctors say, it is telegraphic speech. Meaning no pronouns, he just says "Mama, eat." "Mama, get spoon." Whenever he wants something or he needs something, he'll tell you in a way that he knows how because he couldn't construct a sentence yet.
You know what, we celebrate each new word that he started to learn. For example he said "sira na" (broken) when the page of his notebook was torn. We want to jump while clapping for joy because he learned something new. Every little progress is very vital and celebrating for us. This is what a parent of a special child be like.
Before, it hurts me when I'm browsing on social media and there are moms who were bragging about how advance their little child is, how she says something in complete sentence, because no parent would like their child to be left behind. Yes my child is speech delayed but you don't need to point it out. Do not tell me what to do because I definitely know I already did everything. People keep suggesting about what to do and where to go but really it is tiring and aggravating to listen to those who haven't gone through it. Do you think I'll just lie down on the couch and watch my child to get left behind and suffer? It hurts when people think that I did nothing when they have no idea what hardships we went through eversince my child was born.
It hurts when people are asking him questions and my son just looks at them and smiles without saying anything then they turn to me and ask how old is he, isn't he talking yet and then here I go again explaining and narrating everything that we went through and what we have done and everything what the doctors said about him, and they just go "Ahh, really." Explaining to people over and over again is tiring but I feel the need to do so just to save my son from being accused and judged and scrutinized. I hate it when people assume that my son is stupid just because he is speech delayed. You're all wrong. He is brighter than you think.
The truth is it hurts, and it is a helpless feeling. It is tiring but I would never stop.
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