
Soothing Hyperactivity When Ayesha’s (name changed) mother was carrying her, she would joke, “The baby is always doing karate and gymnastics in my womb.” Since she was a newborn, she would burst into a loud and long cry for situations wherein most other babies would remain calm and contented. A two-year-old Ayesha would get punished in school almost every second day. When her mother asked her why she was meted with time-outs so many times, she replied in a singsong voice, “Oh… sometimes I was running around and didn’t listen to the teacher.” She would continuously lose things in school and forget to do her homework. Come bedtime and she would never want to sleep. Even if she dozed off after midnight, she would wake up at the crack of dawn, demanding that she either watched TV or was sent to the terrace to feed the crows. Ayesha was diagnosed with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). She was extremely intelligent but couldn’t concentrate in class and remember lessons...