I have been suffering with congestion and a sinus infection for the last month. I have been to the doctor twice, and am taking antibiotics and nasal steroids. Some days are better than others. Twice I have been out to lunch with friends and have felt like I am suddenly in a fog, as though a curtain is going down or a light switch is dimming.
I shared this with my son, who basically told me "welcome to my world." He shared that he feels like that at school a lot of the time, especially in Language Arts, Social Studies and Spanish. It reminded me of a class I took with Paula Moraine, an educator and specialist in executive functions remediation, where she compared attention to a light switch, and said that for those of us without attention issues, we turn the light switch on and it stays on, but for those with attention issues, the light switch keeps going down and has to be turned on again over and over. How frustrating that must be for my son and others like him. His teacher says he sometimes looks scared like he doesn't know what to do with an in-class assignment, even though it seems like he has been paying attention the whole time she was explaining the directions to the class. Maybe the light switch wasn't on the whole time for him, and it was going in and out, as it feels to me when I am sick.
This is a reminder to try to walk in my son's shoes sometimes so I understand what it is like to have issues with attention. This lingering illness has perhaps given me that gift.
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