The warmest of welcomes to you🤗
Good to hear you're gradually coming back from the physical, mental and emotional challenges of COVID, not always an easy thing to do. Definitely a time of self development and self questioning: 'What can I do in order to ease my way back into life?', 'What can I do that's not going to tax my body too much while it's still recovering?', 'What can I do that's going to lead to a sense of achievement or fulfillment outside of lying in bed?' etc.
While it can be challenging trying to develop ourself in a number of ways under a variety of circumstances, it can be even more challenging trying to get a sense of how our child or children can achieve in certain areas of self development. Being a mum to a 23yo daughter diagnosed with ADHD and a 20yo son diagnosed with level 1 autism, I never considered my own executive function issues until I began researching to help my kids. I was led to the revelation 'No wonder the 3 of us struggle in a number of ways'. Some executive function challenges
- Time management
- Organisation challenges
- Impulsivity
- Flexible thinking
- Memory
- Task initiation and completion
- Attention and focus
- Emotional regulation
I think emotional regulation is a biggy. It can be so easy to become addicted to what emotionally and naturally gives us a sense of peace, a sense of joy, a sense of stimulation, a sense of fulfillment, a sense of excitement and so on. From a chemical perspective, it can also be about what gives us dopamine hits, what reduces cortisol levels and everything along those lines. Taking away the thing we're addicted to means taking away peace, joy, stimulation, fulfillment, excitement, dopamine and more. What to replace it with becomes more so the question. If nothing's as exciting as the thing we or our child is addicted to, chances are we're going to have to search for that which has not yet been discovered. A bit like going on a treasure hunt without a map. Having really good guides can definitely help make a difference. I've found that good guides are 1)those with an open mind and 2)those who are prepared to wonder with us, so that we're not left wandering and wondering alone.
I've found one of the many great things about organisations like 'Reframing Autism' and 'Autism Awareness Australia' involves the amount of research they share and the variety of opportunities they present in the way of developing a greater education, like with things such as executive function challenges. The guidance they offer can not only help with a sense of direction regarding the way forward, it can help shed light along the way. I should add that the greatest of guides (such as open minded wonder filled or wonderful parents) sometimes need guides of their own. You sound like a wonderful guide for your child. They're blessed to have you leading the way, one step at a time 🙂
