TS and ADHD, Page 2

Such an approach should not be seen as "blaming the victim." The more a child learns to act in a socially graceful manner, the better his or her chances will be for success and happiness throughout life. The formative years of childhood are all-important in deciding a person's destiny and lot in life.

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My earliest memories begin at around the age of four and one-half. Talking with others, I think this is a fairly typical point when the human mind develops to the degree that it is capable of forming long-term memories.

This is the point where I believe a child begins to function in more than a strictly reactive manner. The child becomes fully self-aware and begins to think in the true sense of the word. My definition of thinking is: The ability to predict the future from past experience in intellectualized terms.

In a sense, we might say that this is the point when a human begins life as an individual. This is when the child becomes fully aware of the concepts of "self" and "not-self" and learns to make distinctions between the two. This is when the concept of competition with others first becomes apparent within a person.

No child sits down one day at around that age and reflects to himself or herself: "Well, I'm just beginning life now. I think I shall be a nervous, high-strung, impulsive, obsessive-compulsive person;" any more than another decides: "I'm going to be a calm, cool and collected and self-confident person." A child simply begins to act in accordance with his or her genetic nature. Children have very limited senses of self-analytic abilities and do not ask themselves, "Why am I acting this or that way?"

Lambasting a child for simply acting in accordance with his or her nature would make as much sense as buying a cat and then complaining when it doesn't bark. We all have certain proclivities towards certain traits.

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