Welcome to Senseary

In 2022 our son was diagnosed with ADHD, SPD and ASD level 1 at the age of 6. For years prior to the diagnosis we struggled to understand why he was wildly defiant, angry, and would fly off the handle for no reason. He was the happiest of our 4 kids as a baby and toddler, always laughing and an absolute joy, until he started kindergarten. That's when we noticed the shift in his behavior and truly struggled to understand him. He would destroy his classroom for simple reasons, like, someone borrowed his glue stick.

We even had a mother of one of his classmates post in a facebook group about safety at our schools, state there was a child in class that she was 'terrified would hurt her child'. We also had mothers send horrible text messages to my wife unannounced stating in not so nice terms that our son 'scared their child' and we should remove him from school. Never once did he hit or hurt anything other than inanimate objects (paper, crayons, erasers, etc).

He was in constant in-school suspension, tucked away at the tiny desk at the principal's office, and unable to interact with other kids. Day after day he would come home with notes, or we would receive calls from the school to come up and help calm him. He often took to running away, sprinting out the door and across the fields to attempt to climb the fences into the woods. We tried everything. Therapy, Occupational Therapy, different therapists, going for morning runs at 5am to try and get out negative energy, consequences for his actions, positive reinforcement, and the list goes on and on. But, the one consistent factor that always perplexed my wife and me, was he could never remember his actions. Initially I thought he was saying that just to avoid recounting his behavior, but as we learned more and more about ADHD and ASD, we realized that is quite common, and helped us to focus in more on helping him. So we finally got approval to get him through the testing. And what an arduous process that is. From forms and surveys to be filled out by parents, teachers, administrators, and pediatricians, to the multiple hours of in-person tests he had to endure to come to the aforementioned diagnoses.

Fast forward to the start of 1st grade, and now today through the first half of the year, he is back to being the happy-go-lucky kid who laughs and plays and is able to create meaningful relationships with his friends. He loves to draw, and takes karate classes, and plays baseball (when he decides to come out of retirement). For those of you wondering, yes, he is on medication and he still sees a therapist regularly. As parents we look to one day provide Miles with the skills necessary to stop taking medication and understand his queues and have the techniques to go without. But until that day, we'll do everything we can to ensure he is able to be a kid as a kid should be.