She was developmentally delayed. Her attention span was pretty short. I had to work hard to keep her interested in the test activities rather than all the toys that were on the shelves nearby (I was working in another office yesterday, if it had been my regular treatment space I would have hidden all the extra bits and pieces to reduce the distraction factor). She kept getting up and wandering around. After a little wander around, parents (and I) kept trying to get her to sit back down. It all kept on being very hard work. By the end of it, I felt exhausted.
This is pretty typical of the work I do. Kids that are easy to get through a full assessment at three years of age are the exception in the place I work. We see a lot of kids with complex presentations and difficult social backgrounds, and we work together as a team to come up with diagnoses and therapy plans for them.
What wasn't so typical was that the Dad of this kid called me "Kaz." More than once I heard him tell the kid to "listen to Kaz." A little bit overfamiliar, considering I'd only just met him.
And that I really really hate it when people call me "Kaz."
So there you go, now you all know how to irritate me. No secrets here.
I don't think he was intentionally being rude though, just a bit socially clueless (and possibly with a few learning difficulties himself). When he met another member from our team, Robyn, he called her "Robbie" several times during the consultation. I called her when I'd finished and we had a little giggle about it.
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