A family visited us yesterday, at my work place at Developmental Paediatrics department, MOSC Medical College from Ireland. They have been regularly in touch with us from the toddler stage of their son. They migrated to Ireland and reached out to us with their gifts for supporting children who needed concessional treatment.
When they arrived to greet me on the occasion of my retirement on 30th June, 2023, it became a celebration occasion for all us. They touched us by their kind gesture of remembering and caring to greet to express their gratefulness.
What a delight it was to greet their son, who studies in the sixth grade, and is developing his diverse interests. He sings and plays the guitar and is about to appear for the Trinity College of music examination shortly. He has advanced into skilled swimming to be in competition. His interests in reading, drawing and exploring the environment keep him growing and enlarging!
After their visit, we recalled his beginning with us for finding a direction for his developmental prospects. His parents became his ardent supporters to promote every interest and ability he seemed to indicate in the early years. He had some challenges to overcome. The resilient spirit of his parents and the endeavouring attitude of their son brought them this laurel.
Their example stands out as a demonstration of believing to pursue developmental remedy, in spite of the initial discouragement with which the family first approached us. It took a while for the family to see the brighter side of the developmental prospects of their son. Once they sensed that, they moved on making their home a place of flourishing for their son.
After having been involved in supporting parents for child development for forty years, this visit, three days before my retirement meant a lot to me. As far as I remember, it was the first family who came exclusively to express their gratefulness. There were many others, who expressed gratitude at the end of a consultation. This family did not need a consultation or sought it as their child is making strides on his own. It is a message, that if professionals were to genuinely pursue after enabling parents, they become en-powered to find their own way! That is how professionals can find themselves out of a trap of feeling wanted and long for it!
Late Professor David Morley once told me: 'Make it your ambition to enable parents to make them feel independent and self sufficient'! I felt reminded of this call, when the above family visited us!
When I was retiring home around 8 pm yesterday, what enveloped me was the joyful experience of having been a joint pathfinders for many children along with parents.
Some pathfinding process had to be pursued amidst considerable resistance. One was the issue of offering to treat pharmacologically, preschool children with Cortical Electrical Dysfunction even when they did not have clinical seizures. This one step based on objective clinical criteria, brought remarkable outcome in improving attention, sleep behaviour, language advancement and preschool skills in about 320 children in the last ten years. The clinical pursuit of this area of understanding the Cortical Electrical Rhythm in pre-school children started in 1997 while beginning the Developmental Paediatrics Unit at Christian Medical College, Vellore. I faced resistance from other Neurologists, Paediatricians, parents and child development specialists in suggesting that Cortical Electrical Dysfunction in some pre-school children needed pharmacological intervention.
What anchored me during this difficult time of the last 26 years to pursue after treaingt pre-school children with Cortical Electrical Dysfunction if they fulfilled the criteria, was my experience, arising out of training in Developmental Neurology at the Institute of Neurology, Madras Medical College, from 1993-1996. It was an instructive experience to be in the company of fifteen adult Neurologists, two Paediatric Neurologists and a Developmental Psychologist. At every step of my clinical formation in neurology and the formal research on Minor Neurological Dysfunction in pre-school children, I received input of clarification and enhancement of thinking, beyond what I cloud find in existing literature at that time, from these teachers in Neurology and Psychology. Let me dedicate in gratitude this insight and discovery, of offering pharmacological treatment protocol for Cortical Electrical Dysfunction in pre-school children, to all those who provided me the formative support at the Institute of Neurology.
I have a growing grateful sense within me. I did not choose to be in the specialty of Child Development. I was at the threshold of entering into Paediatric cardiology training. With arrival of our daughter Anita and her departure at three months in 1981, the storm created in our lives took time to move away. What the storm brought to our attention was an awareness about the neuro-developmentally needy children!
Here I am ending my clinical sojourn on 30th June 2023 in the specialty of Child Development! What moves me and Anna is all that we have been given for which we did not go after!
I leave gratefully because families such as in this blog gave us an opportunity to be involved with them, out of which came new understanding and perspectives in Child Development!
We have been given!
We feel touched by the gift of trust, that parents have had in our approach to child Development!
M.C.Mathew(text and photo)
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