THE BILLY PROJECT
The Zombie Story
Story Findings
In this story, we are seeing parent resistance. In this case, the parent is acknowledging that their child has a disability, but disagrees on the implementation of the teacher's recommended solution. Parents hold on to their own stories and experiences, and project them onto their kids. I think this shows the common story we talk about “when parenting, we want our kids to be better than we were”.
Medical diagnosis and assistance is a last resort for these parents. But at least this one sees that there is a disadvantage. Still, this student is falling behind because they are focusing on controlling their body and can't focus on work.
Me: What other factors of resistance make the diagnosis and evaluation of kids so delayed?
Laura: I think parents are a huge factor. “I’m not going to put my kids on meds because I was on meds and I was a zombie”. They have a total resistance. But medicine isn’t the same as it was 30 years ago. Just because they felt like a zombie on medication doesn’t mean that their kid is going to. Or, if it didn’t help them, it’s not going to help their kid. That’s what I’ve seen the most. Especially this year. There was a kid, he was so ADHD, and his dad is so ADHD. You can tell that the dad hasn’t taken his meds. He is so anti-meds for his kid. He wants his kid to develop strategies and work through it. In the meantime, he’s struggling academically because he is working so hard to control his body. The dad doesn’t care because he is passing well enough. His strategy right now is to develop coping skills and doesn’t care about the academic slide.