About me

 

 

I was born in the 60's. My parents were commercial artists we and lived above their central city art studio. During my formative years, we moved to a house built c1900 [beautiful but terribly run-down]. My parents had an "open house" policy and we always had interesting people staying with us; There were the eccentric individuals,  the people with brilliant minds, the creative people, but there were also the friends with children with intellectual disabilities. I guess that my early exposure to individuals with disabilities (who looking back must have had autism spectrum disorders) coloured my later career. I feel I was very lucky to have been encouraged to be tolerant of individual differences in an era where many turned their heads. My mother made everyone feel welcome. 

 

I was always encouraged to engage in philosophical conversation with the "grown-ups". In that respect, I guess I had an unusual childhood. I was also encouraged to learn as much as I could about anything I was interested in, and to question everything. Access to knowledge was highly valued in our home. Although we seemed to be constantly "poor", we were lucky to have access to technology and owned a personal home computer in the 70's before anyone had heard of the Internet [a TRS-80 for those of you who might remember them]. I could read and write before my fourth birthday... but... my youngest brother (ten years my junior) learned to program the computer before he could write!

 

I was an active and inquisitive child and my brothers were also (read that hyper-active). In those days, boys with attentional-regulation difficulties and impulsivity were labelled "hyperkinetic" and sent to "boys homes" to help them deal with their problems. Interestingly, girls were not typically labelled hyperactive, and so I was allowed to just be "active and inquisitive". 

 

I completed a secondary school education, being awarded the School Prize in Fine Art, and at age 17 entered university with the intention of becoming an art teacher. I took some (additional) units in developmental psychology and became aware that this was the career I wanted to follow. My brothers found mainstream education not "suited to their learning styles". One by one, they moved in to skills-based learning where they excelled. My youngest brother later was a recipient of a Young Achiever of the Year Award for his contribution to technology. 

 

I loved university life, but as happens often, I abandoned university to marry and start a family. I gave birth to my first child in the 80s (the era of big hair and shoulder pads). 

 

My new son was "impulsive, inquisitive and active". He got into everything. He ran a lot. He seldom stopped for long enough to eat. He hardly slept. As I tried to cope with his high energy levels, I found that everyone had "advice" for me, but no-one had any real strategies for helping my son.

 

I was told (by my doctor, teachers, friends, and family) that this was "normal boy behaviour" and that I should just let him be. I began to notice that I was being labelled as "over-anxious". Whenever I mentioned that I felt I needed some strategies to help my son, I was told that he would "grow out of it."  Overwhelmingly, it seemed that I was being treated as if I was "just another young mother with no parenting skills." The conversation would move to a suggestion that perhaps medications could help me cope. Of course, I would not entertain the idea that either I or my son needed medication.

 

I knew deep in my heart that my sons difficulties were NOT due to my personal problems, my personality, nor my parenting skills. So I decided to ignore the "advice" and began researching impulsivity and hyperactivity.

 

I read a lot in those early years. I read about dietary interventions, and for two years immersed my family in the Feingold Diet, the Gluten-free Diet, and the No-dairy Diet. Although we were eating well, my son's behaviours did not cease. He slept for less than 4 hours at night, waking early to "destroy" my home. I  recall the morning I awoke at 2 am to the smell of smoke. There he was, sitting in front of the microwave, watching the flames shoot out the back. "I cook chicken," he said. He was eighteen months old!

 

By age three, my sons behaviour began to draw the attention of others. He seemed to "dart" from activity to activity. I received a call from his day-care centre, "Please come and collect your son, he has just let all the other toddler's out .... on to a main road, through the 6ft security gate." "How on earth did he manage that?," I wondered.

 

The child health nurse we saw around this time, advised my husband and I to place our son in an "advanced" education programme. We tried a Montessori School. It was an awesome learning environment and the philosophy very much appealed to me. He lasted 2 months.  He could not settle in to an independent learning routine. I was devastated!

 

When my son was aged five, we were finally given a diagnosis: Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). The paediatrician explained that my sons brain was simply having trouble processing all the information he was recieving; a neuro-transmitter inbalance. We talked about using pharmacological interventions to help him. But I didn't want my son to be "medicated", so I left the paediatricians office with only a "label". I began reading about neuro-transmitters. Once I understood that my child's brain needed some help to organise and plan, I finally spoke to his paediatrician again, and we embarked on a trial of the drug Ritalin (TM). 

 

My son's school seemed to erroneously believe the medication would make him "good."  If he had a "bad" day the teachers would ask if I had ''accidentally" forgotten to give him the medication. So...I set about re-educating the educators. The medication was designed to help his brain slow down a little so that he would be able to "think" more clearly about the consequences of his behaviour.

 

I read more about behavioural interventions. I began teaching my son "how to manage his own distractibility, impulsivity and inattention" using behavioural methodology. I moved my son to another school, then another, until I found a school with a supportive principal and motivated teachers. After two years using Ritalin and a lot of hard work on everyones behalf, including his own, we stopped the pharmacological interventions. Using behavioural methods, he continued to do well at school. We worked hard together to help my son. Collaboration!

 

(Post note: by age 20, there was little evidence of his earlier ADHD symptomology).  

 

My youngest son was born in the 90s. When he entered primary school, I returned to university to complete an Honours degree in Psychology (at Griffith University). I worked part time as a teacher-aide in a State Special School, and privately as an applied behavioural therapist working with children with autistic spectrum disorders.

 

By the end of the 90s, my husband and I were separated. The stresses associated with raising a child with high needs, and my return to university contributed to this. We remain good friends.

 

And so came the new century. I completed my Honours degree in Psychology and registered with the Psychology Board of Queensland. I established my private practice as a (child) psychologist with a special interest in learning disability, ADHD, autism, and pervasive developmental disorders. I then returned to embark upon (many, many years) of research for my Doctoral degree in Psychology.

 

A decade later, my boys are "all grown up" and are respected members of the community; my eldest is a qualified tradesman and my youngest is studying Pharmacy at university. I will submit my Doctoral thesis this year.