As a young child in nursery he needed one to one care in the outdoor area because his behaviour was so dangerous to himself. If the sitter was distracted, he would be over a wall or up a tree; when he was just three years old, he climbed all the way to the top of a tree when someone took their eyes off him. The staff didn’t know how he made it to the top because there were no branches. He might have climbed up on something. He fell out, cut his eye open and smashed the side of his face. Only a week after beginning primary school, he fractured his skull and broke his nose; he would climb on top of everything high with no sense that he might fall and hurt himself. Afterwards he felt very upset and sorry. He likes the thrill from climbing high but has no sense of danger.
When Elliott was five he took swimming lessons at the commonwealth pool. He spent long bouts of time sitting on a bench as he didn’t listen to their instructions. His mother thinks he might not have been able to hear their instructions. Over time she noticed that when he is in busy places, he cannot make sense of what is said even when speaking right to him. At the pool she thinks he couldn’t make out the instructions due to the acoustics and the noises around him. One afternoon he walked away from the bench to climb the ten metres diving board; someone saw him and then whistles were blowing. He said they kept saying get down so he leapt off, then was banned from the pool and Edinburgh leisure for a year. He then joined gymnastics class but was asked to leave as he climbed bars up the side of the wall. He climbed to the top, leapt off the bars and was swinging from the ceiling. There was nothing below and no way of him getting back on the bars at the side. He was up there for a long time. They managed to get a big net; he fell into it and then tried to do it again. They brought him outside by his arm to his mother saying he is never to come back in front of all the parents; she was so distressed. That was the story of his life, always on top of something. She says she used to have to walk him as she would walk a dog due to his excess energy. If she took her eyes off him for a second, he would get on top of bus shelters, but she never knew how he got up. His mother knew that he was unusual from when he was an infant as he was never still.
This post is part of a series following Elliott, a young patient with ADHD. Use the links below to go to the previous or next post, or click here to go back to the blog page.