I have thought a lot about this post.
It has taken me awhile to decide if I should write this so anyone could see it.
After talking with Bob I think I will share a little bit about my darling girl Gwyneth.
Today she is 7.
This year, her 6th year, has been kind of rough and emotional and also really rewarding.
My little girl started 1st grade.
(As you can see from my last post.)
Kindergarten was good, she has always been very bright.
She gets along with friends and she seemed to breeze through school. She was right with everyone else academically in kindergarten.
.
In first grade she is the size of most 4th and 5th graders, I worry about that alot. She has gotten called fat more times than I would like to admit. But my sweet girl just shrugs it off and says "It's okay, there just little."
She is bigger than any other 1st grader.
After a few weeks of being back in school, Bob and I start to notice that she was really behind where she left off in school just three months ago.
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I talked to her teacher and she assures me that it is normal that through the summer they will lose this much, and to just not worry about it yet. A few more months go by and homework is a fight. Tears, screaming, and full out tantrums that I have not seen her have since she was three years old, are happening just to get her to read a book. She is putting on weight faster than I know what to do. I keep talking to her teacher at school, and she mentions that perhaps Gwyn is just more worried about how pretty she looks and what is going on with her friends. This explanation is not jiving with us. I help with the kids books on Fridays and can see almost all the kids have moved up drastically in there leveled reading, but not Gwyn. I can see with her reading everyday that she couldn't read anything harder than she is reading. In other words, her teacher is not being unfair, she is right where she needs to be. Before Christmas break we meet with her teacher again. At this point her teacher is concerned, she is scoring very low on all of her tests and is not progressing. She gives us some suggestions of how we can help her learn in other ways, more tactile teaching. Her teacher is shocked when she asks Gwyn about how she feels about her reading and Gwyn's eyes start dripping with tears silently, and whispers "bad". None of us knew how much it was affecting her. Bob and I are incredibly involved everyday in her learning. I help her in the morning and after school with spelling and reading, then Bob helps her again with spelling and reading before bed. Very little improvement. I keep thinking to myself, "I've always thought she was so bright." We do start to notice somethings that we hadn't before. She can't have anyone else in the room while doing homework with us. Sometimes even the littlest noise will make her have to start a book over, even if she has read the book 3 times already. I also start to accept that perhaps some of her behavior is not "just Gwyn's" normal behavior. For example; While playing Starfall on the computer she writes all over the computer monitor screen in pen. Why? She answers "I don't know" Or While walking into my room one day I notice it is sparkling, not clean sparkling, but literally SPARKLING. I walk into my closet and all of my clothes are sparkling too. Gwyn had taken a can of hair glitter that we had used for Halloween and sprayed EVERYTHING in my room. Why? She answers in tears "I don't know." None of this is age appropriate. I could see a 3 or 4 year old Gwyn doing this. |
2 weeks after Christmas break, I go to help with the books and to talk to her teacher about what Bob and I have discovered.
I ask her if we can talk after school and she says she would like to talk now.
I tell her all Bob and I have observed, and tried with her.
She tells me all of the things she has observed too.
She tells me that she is not a problem, but she can't sit still.
She is always asking to use the restroom too.
She kindly, but adamantly, suggest that we take Gwyn to the doctor.
She never says what she thinks Gwyn may be struggling with, but that she will fill out any paper work that the Doctor might need.
I beg her to get her into reading recovery, and she tells me she will do all that she can, they can only choose 2 from each class.
Gwyn has some very challenging and disruptive children in her class.
Her last words to me are, "It's the one's that are not the problem and quiet that I worry about."
I go straight to the Doctors office and with in a week, her teacher and I have filled out all of our 20 pages of paper work.
Andrea and I talk and she suggest this is ADD.
All I know about is ADHD, and she does not fit those characteristics.
After reading the symptoms of ADD a light bulb went off in my head.
She fit them ALL.
After being really pushy with the Doctors office I get an appointment three weeks later instead of 2 months later.
Dr. Marsden was wonderful with her, (as he always is) and talked really openly with her.
My sweet girl explained how the boys that sit next to her can talk all the way through there timed math and they are on much harder papers than her. She told him how she knows all the answers to the math problems but she just can't get them down fast enough.
He asked her how she felt, did that make her mad? She said, "Not mad, just really.....frustrated."
He kind of chuckled and then hugged her and told there was no better way to describe it.
The reading test he did on her showed that she maybe could read the words but with the distractions he was making she could not comprehend any of it.
We also explained about her impulsive behavior (like the stories I shared earlier.)
He told us that her paper work from the teacher and I showed that she was a classic case of ADD and also that she was suffering from depression.
BREAK MY HEART!
He was happy that we caught it so young and he thought she could be caught up by the end of the year, if we could find a right dose of medication for her and really hard work on her part. I will admit I did not think that was possible.
I knew how far behind she was.
Our doctor held Gwyn's hands and looked her in that face as he explained that she was so smart that her brain wanted to focus on everything in the classroom.
He said most average people like himself and her parents could only hear and do things one thing at a time but, her brain was trying to do it all.
If you could have seen the weight that was visibly lifted off this little girls shoulders.
I think she was convinced she was dumb.
Her smile was big, and her dedication to learn as much as she could was determined at that moment.
After a lot of consideration and prayers Bob and I felt that medication was the way for us to go with her. We needed help, and quickly.
We tried many different medications and still worked really hard together with her.
She got a place in Reading Recovery, and worked one on one with Mrs. Ybright everyday for 30 minutes.
After about a 1.5 months of trying different medications we found the right one, she took off.
Her teacher saw me in the library at school one day and told me she was just a sponge right now....She said
Gwyn was insatiable for knowledge.
She was not fighting me nearly as much about getting homework done and she was enjoying reading everything to us. For the most part her personality has stayed the same. She is a little more reserved about things now, and maybe more socially aware.
Something else started to happen too.
She started to lose a little weight.
I knew this would be a side affect, but I think in all of her frustration with life, eating had become the comfort she used. ( Not unlike her parents :( )
Recess has been hard for her because most of her friends like to cross the monkey bars, something she was not physically able to do.
Guess what little miss can do now....
Cross the monkey bars.
She also says that she likes to play tag now. She said that she has gotten better at running.
She has now lost a considerable amount of weight as to date and everyone notices.
Sometimes to many people notice.
I have to try to make it not a big deal, and explain she has always been beautiful.
As of last Wednesday, Gwynnie is caught up in almost every subject.
Mrs. Ybright said she hadn't had a student get so far so fast in reading recovery, and that she will not need additional help next year.
My girl did that!
She worked her little heart out.
We all roll our eyes at every advancing year graduation program...you know what I am talking about: pre-school, kindergarten, 1st grade......
This year we couldn't have been more excited to come and watch her graduate.
Bob and I sat together and
I cried my eyes out at this 1st grade graduation as she read to everyone in the audience her readers theater.
I cried when her teacher hugged her and whispered in her ear how proud she was of her.
I am sure most of the mothers there were thinking I was crazy.
I am so grateful for a teacher who really listened to us, the parents, and really watched my daughter in class. I am so grateful she didn't just label her as slow. Mrs. Woodbury will always have a place in my heart for that.
I am so grateful for a Doctor who not only gave her a way to focus her mind, gave my daughter loving words to help her along.
I am mostly so grateful to understand my little girl so much better.
I couldn't be more proud of her hard work and desire to learn and catch up to her peers academically.
We will continue to work hard this summer too.
On this 7th Birthday I say she really earned that last year.
I adore this girl, and think the world of her.
I don't know what I would do without her!
Love you Gwynnie Girl!
Happy 7th Birthday!
*For Gwyn's Birthday Party she had a few girlfriends over for a beauty parlor experience and some Glam shots!
Feathers in their hair and done fancy, so glam photos, and making a beautiful frame to hold their Glam shot.
These are some of her before and after pictures.
