Anxious toddler

During his first year Anthony continued to be very anxious.

I remember doing the vacuum cleaning (which was very noisy) .. and it was only when I’d finished - did I hear the sobbing from his room .. running up the stairs - I found him lying traumatised in his cot .. with tears streaming down his face - thinking he’d been left alone.

Welcome to the joys of being a parent !! How to get a guilt trip for life !

These memories I’m digging up - still make me feel bad – but if your children are experiencing similar anxiety. You should know that there is light at the end of the tunnel and to 95% of people whi meet Anthony now , he displays no obvious signs of anything being wrong.

They say Dyspraxia it is the hidden disability - because nothing is visibly wrong.

What is true is he has made massive progress over the years through the time, help and patience from a lot of caring people at school and home
.. and his own perseverance of course

You may know there is quite a lot of unintentional peer pressure amongst other parents .. so there is always some degree of competition around .....whose child walks and talks first etc.

Anthony didn’t walk unaided until he was 14 months .. and when he did .. he was Bambi on ice personified.

With a 5 weeks premature handicap – he was much smaller, weaker and anxious than the other children. He did not enjoy the rough and tumble of other toddlers and was very shy, he would not join in .. preferring to be a spectator on the outside looking in at the games.
He would get very excited at the games the other children were playing .. but didn’t want to participate.

He was clumsy, had poor balance and couldn’t do the ordinary physical activities that seemed second nature for most other kids.

Climbing the ladder of indoor plastic play slides was like scaling Mount Everest for him. And climbing-frames a nightmare - he could never figure out where to put his feet or hands.
I found it very frustrating - “he’ll grow out of it” was the usual response when we voiced our fears.

I had my doubts but we practiced and practiced these physical activities, although it clearly made him stressful.

I remember him standing on a small brick wall in the back garden .. no more than 9” high and him screaming in panic .. thinking he would fall.
It seems funny now .. but at the time it was gut wrenching stuff wondering what the problem was.

There was also the time he must have been around 18 months - he was in his baby seat in the back of the Car .. when I decided to take the car through an automatic carwash. – Big mistake!

I thought he’d find it exciting … but when the noise started - the water jets pounding the roof and the huge cleaning brushes enveloping the car .. he became hysterical - screaming in terror, despite all attempts to placate and comfort him.

It was just like that scene in the classic horror film ‘The Omen’ when Gregory Peck tries to take the young Damien to church.

My Dad was in the passenger seat was totally shocked - his face white. “Something’s wrong with him”

On the positive side Anthony had (and still does have) a fantastic long term memory of events.
When he was only three he knew all his numbers and would take great delight reading the numbers on all the houses in the street.

And from an early age certainly when he was three he could read very clearly … we thought we had a potential genius on our hands … But what we didn’t know was that he was not understanding the stories he was reading

… But that’s a topic for the next post.

Post your comments below.

Cheers

Des