“Special Kids Need Special Parents”
Someone said that to me not too long ago as I was expounding about our journey and our struggles. We’ve only been on this trip for four years, but it feels longer than that. Not in a bad way, just in the way of parents, in that when a son or daughter comes along all too soon you forget what it was like before they completed your family and you can no longer imagine your life without them.
It’s only been three months since a neurologist wrote Developmental Coordination Disorder on a small square piece of paper and slid it across the desk to me, and I started on a journey of becoming intimately familiar with a neurological condition I’d never heard of. But before that there were other words “gross motor delays,” “motor planning issues,” “poor core control,” etc., and other doctors, and specialists, and therapists. It’s a road we’ve been on a long time, but one you never plan for when you decide to start a family. And it’s a road that’s changed my life so fundamentally that sometimes I just sit back and wonder at it.
I’ve had to become an educator, an advocate, a laytherapist, and so many other things I never pictured myself being, because almost everyone I encounter in the world is just like I once was, utterly unaware of DCD. Googling only brings that into sharper focus – as does my daughter’s broadening interactions in the community – and I’d like to maybe help change that, even just a little.
I’ve begun talking about our life with DCD on Facebook, but that’s not really the best place to share a journey, so I’m moving it here.
Lastly, just to the right of this post under Resources are links to all the DCD/Dyspraxia sites and groups on the web that have helped me most. If you’re new to this, like I once was, check them out, and I’ll continue to add to them as I find others of value.