Episode 127 Growing up under the watchful eye.

It was about a year after we moved to the town on the shores of Lake Biwa that my vague suspicions about my second daughter became a reality.
The year my eldest daughter graduated from kindergarten and started elementary school with a big backpack, my second daughter, two years her junior, began attending kindergarten.
And, my second daughter would "freeze up" at kindergarten.

She would be startled in places where large groups gathered, and just freeze right there.
Even though it was a kindergarten, it was quite small, unlike those in urban areas, with only one class for both the senior and junior groups, and it was even under-enrolled.
It was such a small-scale kindergarten that it wouldn't have been able to operate if it weren't a public one, but even so, my second daughter experienced a "public" place where a large number of people gathered for the first time at the entrance ceremony.
My second daughter's PDD-NOS (ASD by current standards)symptoms became a reality for me at that moment.

I think the most obvious symptom that first appeared in my second daughter was that she was "not good with groups."
She had friends she got along with, and playing together was no problem.
But if the teacher tried to get everyone to do something together, she couldn't keep up... whether it was singing or playing...

My second daughter showed an "allergic reaction" to acting in the same direction as everyone else, and I think the reason she was able to manage life at kindergarten was because it was such a small group that the teachers were able to keep a close eye on her.

When it was "drawing time for everyone," she was next to the teacher,
When it was "running time for everyone," she was on the teacher's back,
And when it was "free play time," she did as she pleased with her close friends... I think the teachers watched her carefully and let her act freely.

This is a story from around 2003.
It was before the recognition of developmental disabilities had permeated society, and a time when I myself was ASD but didn't know it, and while I noticed my second daughter was "a bit different," I was trying to raise her "normally."
What if this had been an area where it was difficult to get into a kindergarten or nursery school...

For a child with ASD, the hurdle of kindergarten or nursery school, where they first come into contact with society, is quite high.

There are many kindergartens now that advertise their features to recruit children, aren't there?
Elite education from childhood... teaching English, and so on.
I don't mean to deny this kind of early education... but.

If, hypothetically, my second daughter had enrolled in the kindergarten my eldest daughter attended when we lived in Osaka... she probably wouldn't have lasted.
Rules, events... let's all do our best to make our moms and dads happy!
There was some kind of event almost every month...

The town on the shores of Lake Biwa had the "looseness" necessary for my second daughter to grow.
In this town, watched over by teachers and the local community, my second daughter would grow up slowly.

Old blog archive 2019/1/19