A Little About Elijah

Elijah Joseph Guillory was born on February 26, 2001. The pregnancy went fine and the birth went somewhat fine with the exception of a couple of concerns. They weren't concerns then, but they are concerns now. Elijah was a pretty normal baby. I did start noticing differences as he got older. As a toddler he would throw fits that would get worse if he was punished. He had a hard time grasping language and expressing his feelings. At age four  Elijah was not an articulate child. He had a hard time explaining himself. He rarely understood what we were talking about. He did end up going into pre-k where the first concerning incident occurred. In pre-k Elijah lost his temper and repeatedly hit a kid with a block because he was sharing. He was placed in ISS (In School Suspension). For me this was my wake up call. How does a 4 year old express this behavior unless he has experienced it before. I saw no other explanation. The only thing was that this kind of behavior was not practiced in my family. Where else could he have gotten these ideas. I was worried and I knew there had to be something more to his behavior. In the next two years in school Elijah had a hard time learning how to read, simple math, and other things. By the end of 1st grade I was so confused and lost that I broke into tears in front of his teachers begging for help, telling them that I didn't understand what was going on with him and I didn't know what else to do. I begged of the teachers to please tell me what to do and one of them finally recommended that I have him tested for ADHD! THAT WAS THE BEST ADVICE EVER!!! I made an appointment for him and in September 2008 he was diagnosed. He's not severe, but he does have most of the traits. Once I was explained how his brain worked, it opened up a WHOLE NEW WORLD! I finally understood what was going on with him!!! I decided not to medicate, I feel that it's the easy way out. It takes a while before finding out what medication will work for this kind of thing and I don't want to have to go through that. I prefer to teach him how to deal with it.