I thought I'd end this very busy month with a blog entry from this super cool teenage girl who has APD. She wrote a blog entry specifically for parents who have questions about her APD.
I've got to be honest... I NEVER thought about how Jared's APD would affect his driving. And, of course, I now have to force myself not to stress over that!
It's a long blog entry, but anyone who knows anyone with APD must read it. She is a phenomenal young lady who truly is helping with APD awareness. Here are some of my favorite excerpts:
7 hours a day we are processing information, and it’s hard and complex things
that we are “asked” to process. 3-4 (or more) hours after that, we have to work
on homework based on the information that was processed for 7 hours straight to
us…So we have to go back and re-process what was being said in those 7 hours,
and try to break those 7 hours down into just 3-4 hours of homework, and
summarizing is not a strong suite. Are you stressed out just reading that? – I
am! That was hard to write for me! Take 7 (hours in school) + 4(hour on homework
or more) and times that by 7 (days a week) and you get 77(or more) hours a week
spent on complex and hard information that needs to be processed. That’s just a
week. 24 hours a day, 7 days a week is equal to 168 hours a week. 77 hours is
almost half of 168 hours a week. No kid, or no adult wants to spend that amount
of time on something that is difficult for them.
When there is something that is easy for me, and fun (like babysitting, field
hockey, or photography…) that BENEFITS me I want to do my best at it. It’s fun,
and I’m good at it! It’s EASY, and not a lot of things in life living with
Auditory Processing Disorder as teenager are easy. That’s why if you pick a
major you like in college, or a job you really enjoy, there is not a thought
about being lazy because you LIKE it and you want to work at it. But if you
don’t like the major you’re in, or you hate your job, you’re going to become
lazy because it’s not what you like to do.
This goes for
everyone in the world, but it’s rare for someone with APD to say something is
“easy” all the time, so when there is something easy and fun, it’s incredible!
Today, I dread going to school, and thinking how I am not even half way done
with my school year yet, or that I have next year as well, but those are just
thoughts, and I do have to learn how to control them and make them positive.
Even for you as a parent it will help to focus on the smaller things your
daughter has to finish, than the things far away. I probably said that easier
than it is to do, but the bigger you make things, the harder they will be.
I didn’t know I had APD until I was 13 years old. So before that, I knew I’d
always be mocked or bullied, or not invited to things but I didn’t know why. All
young kids want to know “why?” Think about it… If you told your kid “You can’t
go to Jimmy’s Birthday party on Saturday” and not explain to them “why”, they
are going to be frusterated, don’t you think? It’s the same things when kids
don’t understand why a certain friend doesn’t invite them, or why they are
placed in school as “un cool” even though they’re super nice and athletic. It
takes time to figure that stuff out. I’m still working on it and I’m 16. I want
to know “why” all the time, but I don’t want to know “why” as much as I did when
I was younger. As I grow, I learn not to worry about things as much as I did
when I was younger.
Here is the full blog entry. Enjoy:
http://apdwarrior17.blogspot.com/2011/11/real-questions-asked-by-real-parents.html
In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it John 1:4-5 (NIV)
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