Page 20 - Wonderful Women of Virtue.cdr

According to Sharmita Bhinder, It is highly significant to remember that all children have strengths and weaknesses. Just because a child is weak in one area
does not mean that any child is having any disorder. Moreover, all children develop at different paces. Children may not be as advanced in a certain area as their
brothers or sisters were. This does not mean they have any kind of disorders or disabilities. .
If a child does indeed have a disability, the good news is that there is a lot of help available. Consultations with the right professionals can help your child
manage the disability well. In fact, many people with learning disorders go on to college, earn advanced degrees and become successful adults.

Hey, this is Sharmita Bhinder…
Just wanted to share the story of my life...

I was left on my own quite early losing both of my parents to cancer and cirrhosis of liver by 17 years. Being an only child was really difficult, I moved to Lady Sri
Ram in Delhi but could not really fit in there, then wanted to be at home so at 19 married my best friend who was about 23 at the time. But education was more
of a priority so I completed Law and Masters in Political Science from Punjab University. Five years later I decided to start a family, but life for me had to be
Sharmita Bhinder
complicated. First pregnancy was a molar pregnenolone with chances if it being carcinogenic, so two years passed having to wait for tests and had a few more
miscarriages before finally having my first child in the year 1999 after an emergency surgery and a difficult pregnancy of monitoring the baby as he had the cord
around his neck… The second baby came not so long after that and the doctor said it was too close, I was put on bed rest as they just had a gap of one year and
three months, This had to be an elective c section and the drama had to happen. The anesthesia leaked to my brain with something called spinal headache
which could be compared to a hammer striking your head from within. It took two months for me to be able to walk straight ...
Manav was the most beautiful baby, amazingly cute, cuddly, a poster baby who was not too much of a trouble but hardly slept. We realized his milestones were
delayed, his head was not stable up until nine months and he was not crawling there was less movement in his lower body. But his language development was
really strong he started speaking words as early as 6 months and small sentences by one year… He had a great interest in books and information but lacked
physically. Another thing was that he also had a squint. We went to a lot of doctors, with not much diagnosis but a gross motor developmental delay and only
time would tell his gross and soft skills and I prepared myself for whatever had to come. I sat frozen for two days not knowing what to do and finally became
optimistic telling myself that whatever happened I was not going to give up and that I would lead a wonderful and productive life. I had to leave my practice for
the pregnancies and now had begun a career in education and part time soft skill training but had to give that up too as Manav needed time.

Soon I learnt about acupressure, biochemical medicines, read about homeopathy and ayurveda and began massages and alternative medicines for brain and
body and Manav was allergic too, he had atopic dermatitis so that had to be looked after. As I realized his soft skills were good we spent a great time reading,
increasing his vocabulary, watching a lot of TV National Geographic, Discovery etc. alongside cartoons like normal kids but he had a great fascination towards
anime and he watched everything with a lot of attentiveness and had an almost perfect remembrance, he could repeat what he saw almost exactly. At the age of 2
years and 3 months manav did walk, a month before his play school interview. It was difficult to let him go to school wondering if he could walk, he was
unsteady with steps, running and gauging distances. What worried me was that when he fell he could not stop his fall by putting his hand and would fall hard
on his face. There were many small things that made me worry like him being unconcerned about the environment and those around him, he had no friends; he
couldn't express love or a strong desire… Only anger. He would almost not pay attention to what you say but would still pick up the significant things so
brilliantly. For example once when he was one year three months old I told him to look at some snails and I said look at the tentacles and almost immediately he
point out that an octopus has tentacles, snails have antennas.

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