'It broke my heart to hear him say, 'I am the dumbest kid in my class. I can’t finish all my work. I don’t understand my math. But he wasn’t dumb, and he did understand math. He just had trouble concentrating.'
When my son, Luc, was in the first grade there were many days when he would come home after school upset, sometimes crying. It broke my heart to hear him say, “I am the dumbest kid in my class. I can’t finish all my work. I don’t understand my math.”understand math. When I worked with him at home, he did addition and subtraction easily. He just had trouble concentrating. He had issues with focusing. I knew then that my boy probably had attention deficit disorder . After all, I had it.
My son was diagnosed shortly after he started first grade. The doctor suggested putting him on medication, but I was unsure about doing that. I didn’t want to medicate my six-year-old. Would I be harming him? Was he too young to takeBut when I looked at my blue-eyed, blond-haired little baby, I knew I had to give him a chance to realize he could excel in school. He needed to know that he wasn’t dumb, and that he was just as capable as every other child in his class.
The medication helped. My son started doing well on tests, and he finally realized he could do the work. His confidence soared, and instead of not wanting to go to school in the morning, he was happy and excited. He no longer cried at the end of a school day because of missing work. The medication didn’t change my son. He was still the funny, spontaneous, impulsive, quirky guy he’d always been.
The main character, Colin Cooper, is based on my son, Luc. He looks like Luc, talks like Luc, and has focusing issues like Luc. Colin doesn’t let his issues get in his way. He’s sort of ain his spare time, and determined to make a difference in the world, despite being only 10 years old and challenged with difficulty concentrating. Colin even names his dog Focus to remind himself to stay in the moment when he is going on his dangerous and exciting adventures.
Colin is smart, engaging, funny, and determined. Although certain people don’t understand him, Colin likes who he is and tries his best to always do the right thing. It may not turn out the way he plans each time, but he makes his way through. He realizes that he’s got a lot of lessons to learn, but he also knows he is capable of teaching others — especially his friends and family members —about being a hero.
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