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My Children Have Taught Me So Much

Rebecca Shayler-Adams by Rebecca Shayler-Adams Additional Needs

Rebecca Shayler-Adams

Rebecca Shayler-Adams

We are just a typical family muddling along our day to day lives. 4 kids, 1 with autism, 1 with an unknown neuromuscular condition

Watching all my children play together made me see how wonderful children are.

My son was born with a hearing problem but if you studied him you would never know.

You would see that sometimes he can’t hear you in a crowded room or if you are behind him, but on the whole he has compensated really well.

My daughter’s condition has given her some skeletal abnormalities such as scoliosis and her ankles make her feet turn in, mixed in with her hypotonia means that walking is something that she really struggles with, and yet for 3 weeks she has been walking.

She doesn’t walk properly, but she walks in her own little way, even if she gets exhausted and collapses a lot.

Their siblings don’t say a word about them being different and are extremely protective.

They will help them in so many different ways.

My son due to his sensory issues couldn’t stand being sticky or muddy and yet because of his siblings helping him with craft and play-doh, he can now play and get muddy and sticky like other children.

He doesn’t feel completely comfortable with it however he loves digging for worms and woodlouse and these are things he would never have been able to do without the help of his siblings spurring him on and adapting.

Children seem to be able to adapt so well and yet as an adult I feel like I am so slow at adapting.

I am trying to remember so many different things.

I am trying to play with toys in different ways which will help develop my daughter’s skills better than the conventional way of playing with them.

I am trying to remember not to touch my son’s bed while he is in the house, as he has a meltdown.

I am trying to remember not to say specifics to my son, such as I will be a minute, put your toast on the kitchen side, as he will expect me in exactly 60 seconds and will have put his toast on the kitchen side and the plate in the sink.

I always thought that as the adults we are meant to teach our children everything, especially life skills.

Yet here I am hands up in the air saying that actually my children are teaching me so much more then I could teach them, and for this I am eternally grateful to them.

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