My journey with Adi was an ever-evolving one. I learnt something new, something different every single day.
I had mentioned in a previous post that Adi used to love going to school. He also loved it when I read to him. However, he was not too inclined towards writing, and with his speech being an impediment, he couldn’t really express what he had learnt. That’s when I started exploring different ways to teach him new concepts.
I noticed that he was always excited about the Scrabble board. That gave me an idea. I started familiarising him with the alphabets first, then their phonic sounds. Gradually, I moved on to two-letter words, three-letter words, and then bigger ones. I took the help of number cut-outs and blocks to teach him numbers.
That’s when I realised something amazing. My champ could understand things after being shown just once or twice at most. He could recall easily and remember what was taught. I taught him about vowels, consonants, concepts like big–small, tall–short, and so much more. He picked things up very quickly. He could arrange numbers in ascending and descending order, find greater and smaller numbers, identify different colours, fruits, vegetables… the list just goes on. And every such moment was a big celebration for me.
There was just one catch. He was a true Virgo 😊
He would do everything only if he wanted to. Without his wish, there was nothing I could make him do. He was adamant that way. And I respected his choices. I was happy that he knew what he wanted and what he didn’t. That itself was a big deal for me.
With him, I learnt that learning happens in so many different ways. There’s no one straight, linear path. When our child doesn’t learn or do things the way other kids do, we worry so much. We worry when we feel our child is not competent enough compared to others.
But I learnt that none of that really matters. What matters is that your child is enough just the way he or she is. What matters is your child’s happiness. We turn the world around them into a competition—a race to excel everywhere. Remove that pressure, remove that stress, and see how they thrive and grow into amazing human beings.
Adi taught me that… and so much more. He showed me that learning doesn’t need to look a certain way. It just needs patience, love, and space. And when given that, miracles happen quietly.
He didn’t fit into any box, and he wasn’t meant to. He came into my life to teach me that growth looks different for every child—and that difference is beautiful.
Through him I learnt to slow down, let go of comparisons, and trust the journey.