What to do when your child has what people called a "condition"?

It's been more apparent to us that Ethan has some trouble with focus.  In the past, people from co-op, have approached us about him not being able to focus during group lessons.  However, I treated it as something he will eventually outgrow, he was only 5 or 6 years old after all.

During this year of teaching him at home, spending more time one-on-one with him, I noticed that he gets distracted easily by little things.  It can be a sound in the background, a reflection from the TV, or just plain old backyard.  I often got frustrated having to reread passages and he still couldn't answer questions about it.  I thought he just unwilling to listen.  In addition, his Sunday school teachers have told us that they would have to call on him a few times before he would respond.  So taking all these into consideration, I finally realized that we need to look into this more and not waiting for him to grow out of it.

So we went to see a neurodevelopmentalist and had an evaluation done.  It turns out Ethan is hyper-auditory.  It means he's hyper responsive to both auditory and visually.  He has very strong peripheral vision and anything he sees becomes "visual play" and distract him from focusing on what is in front of him.  He is hyper responsive to even tiniest sounds around him and would get distracted by them and not hear what we're telling him.

However, it isn't as bad as it sounds, he doesn't need to be medicated or anything.  There are activities we can do with him such as number sequencing, reading comprehension practices, verbal direction activities that would help enhance his memory and focus.  I would have to do this daily on top of his schoolwork.  So far it's been difficult to actually follow through it all, but the times that I'm able to do them, I see little progress made.  It's still hard to get his focus at times, but at least I understand and "try" not to get angry or upset all the time over this particular issue.

I am trying to not treat this as a "condition" because it would become a crutch.  I'm constantly reminded that what might seem to be a "weakness" now can be a "strength" when he grows up.

2014 Conclusion

Praise God for another great year!  Despite the ups and downs, I cannot thank the Lord enough for all that He had bless us.  My husband always reminds me that compared to some families, we haven't gone through much "downs" - the kind of trials that could really do damage.  I have to agree with him.  I would say the only complaints I ever really had the past year were common to all moms - the daily grunt work of caring for 3 little ones.  However, the blessings that came with it all was well worth it.  Seeing each of them grew in different ways had given me tremendous joy as a stay-at-home and homeschooling mom.  Again, I cannot praise God enough and I need to.

Ethan had turned 7 this past November and I had already noticed the difference in his talking and mannerism that he's no longer a little boy.  In small ways, my oldest is starting to grown into a little man.  How I miss him as a little toddler, barely walking and wobbly in this steps.  

Noah had learned to get along with Bethany in his own ways.  In fact, he loves hanging out and asking his little sister to go down to play with him in the basement.  I really love their interactions and pretend-plays with each other.  It affirms our decision to homeschool when I see the sibling bond grows deeper each day.

Although Bethany is only 3, she talks and acts like a 5 year old.  Her strong maternal instinct truly amaze me.  There are times when I got hurt (which can be quite often give my clumsy nature) and was in pain, she would be the one crying out louder than me.  I ended up being the one comforting her and stopping her from crying.  Praise God for her empathy.  We had also been working together on the alphabet.  I often feel guilty that I don't spend enough time teaching her as I did with the other two, so I had started teaching her on the side during the school time.  She really enjoys it, especially when rewarded with candy....

All in all, the year 2014 had brought our family much joy.  God has been faithful in keeping our family under his wings.

Here are some fun things we did.

For History, we learned how to make quill pen with straw and pomegranate juice solution.  Cut straw in angle at tip then dip into solution.

Our girl is also a kinesthetic learner.  It was her idea to put the puzzle letters on the alphabet mat to match up.