From the beginning .....many years ago.

When my son alex was 2 years old, he was different. He was hyperactive, impulsive and had no sense of danger. He would climb things and hardly ever sat still. This was 8 years ago,, he is currently 10year old.

Our journey began @ 2years 11mnths....my first documentation of something being wrong. I asked the doctors to please find out what was wrong with my son. He didnt sleep and when he did , it was quite sporadic. I always figured that it was somehow related to lack of sleep and that caused him to have little self control. The doctors referred us to Grand River Hospital, the preschool treatment and diagnostic program. After the initial consultation it was decided that Alex would start attending a treatment spot at the daycare affiliated with the hospitals phyiatric department. A spot in the program consisted of 8 weeks at most, or so we thought.

For the next 8 wks, Alex would attend half days and would be closely monitored via a one way mirror by the "professionals". They worked hard to understand what was wrong with him, implementing different strategies to help him cope. Nothing worked...he carried on being his rambunctious self. He hurt other kids with his aggressive behaviour on a daily basis. At the end of 8 wks, they decided that alex needed more time..he would stay in the program almost a full year. They determined that he needed speech therapy and occcupational therapy. I never understood the speech therapy part of things...he was able to speak and I thought he did quite well. There was always speculation of whether he didnt know how to use his words to deal with issues. Occupational therapy they thought was needed due to a variation in the bony alignment of his legs and his being overly clumsy and falling quite a bit. He was sent to a bone specialist for his bow-leggedness and it was determined that this was just him and how he was built.

The next step was a referrel to Torontos Hospital for Sick Children to do a complete sleep study to check for sleep apnea and to see whether his behavour was in any way related to poor quality of sleep. The hospital concluded that he was a normal sleeper. Blood work drawn would reveal iron dificiency. I was advised to start him on iron supplementation and did that. Still no concrete dianosis of what was wrong with him. On discharge from Grand River hospital, i was told that Alex did not make the gains they had expected given the amount of intervention he was given. Diagnosis : Borderline ADHD and advised that if symptoms continued into elementary school age..then to have him reassessed.
Discharged to a special needs spot at Victoria Day Care Centre.

The Daycare Centre knew full well what to expect, they had consulted with Grand River Hospital and agreed that they could accomodate Alex. It wasnt long into it that the centre began complaining. It became an every day occurance,, Alex hurt other kids, Alex broke things, Alex won`t have a nap, Alex won`t eat...etc... The daycare soon phoned in a referrel to Kidslink Early Intervention services and got them to consult with the centre on how to help Alex with his issues. Alex received weekly supports from his Kidslink worker and this wasnt enough.