For about a year now, I have been trying to teach my daughter with Fetal Alcohol Syndrome to keep track of time. Our dreams for her future include her holding a job and living in her own apartment, possibly with us controlling her finances. To make that possible she needs to be able to keep track of time and use some type of planner or calendar.

Her IQ is at the borderline of mentally retarded and low normal, the high 60’s. She will be 14 in a few days and I think it may be time to give up on this dream and seek another. Trying to teach her to keep track of time and her schedule has caused many hurt feeling and arguments.

All of the children are homeschooled so they don’t have rigid schedules most of the time. Their instructions are to get lunch between 11am and 1pm and then do their chores at 1pm. That way if they are in the middle of an assignment or project, they can stop when it is most convenient for them or decide by how hungry they are that day. She also needs to remember that she takes piano lessons on Wednesday afternoons.

Both Super Dad and I have talked to her about using a planner. We’ve let her make her own, we’ve purchased them at the store, and I’ve made special planners in Microsoft Excel for her. She refuses to look at them because she says they are stupid.

Yesterday, she insisted that she ate lunch and then described the ham sandwich she had made. Two of the younger children and I had sat in the kitchen from 10am until 1:30pm doing school and eating lunch together. She never came into the kitchen; in fact, she never left her computer where she was working on a project.

This is the first time that I know of that she has created such a story. However, she continues to struggle with getting her lunch in the set period. She hears the other children, seven others, talking and getting their lunches, but it just doesn’t register with her. Then she hears them doing their jobs, but that doesn’t register either.

Therefore, I believe it is time for me to go back to telling her what to do all day. How does that prepare her for her future? When she came to live with us, she made such leaps and bounds in her abilities that I guess I thought I could “fix” her. I honestly believed when we adopted her at age six, that she would lead a near normal life someday.

AdoptionWeek e-Magazine To subscribe visit AdoptionWeek.com

For information/instructions on how to subscribe FREE to your favorite AdoptionBlogs, please visit this link. your favorite AdoptionBlogs

Should I Try Medication Now or Wait
How to Choose a Psychiatrist
It’s True! Adopting Special Needs Children Can Make You Nuts
Did You Ever Think, “My Child’s Special Needs Are Too Much to Handle?”
Tattling on Your Brothers and Sisters
Photo Credit