I want you to think back to the last birthday party you attended that involved a piñata.
Picture the kids in your head. They are anxious with one foot forward and one foot back switching their gaze from the piñata to the pre-teen little leaguer that’s holding the stick. They are holding either the expensive candy bags bought on Etsy or a plastic HEB bag and the edge of their T-shirts because the budget went to massive amounts of fajitas and the Elsa and Anna impersonators.
As the candy hits the floor, so do the kids. Scrambling, rushing, maybe pushing, laughing, darting their eyes back and forth to adjust their view to find the camoflouged candy in the blades of grass.
Not Isla.
Isla stares. She stands and looks up at the piñata stuck high up in the tree and then she looks down at all the chaos happening at her feet. Candy is falling all around her and she doesn’t react or pick up a single one.
We are yelling at this point to get above the noise. “Isla! Get the candy! Hurry! Go Isla girl!”
Nothing. No reaction.
The research at the Elizabeth Newson Centre in London has shown that children with PDA usually exhibit “passive early history”.
“Passive early history” could look like a toddler with ZERO reaction to a piñata or dropping a toy on accident, not attempting to pick it up and just staring as it falls or rolls away or not reaching for toys at all.
The other BIG part of “passive early history” is delayed milestones.
Oh man, I can still see the mountains of forms in my head with questions about Isla… when did she sit up, roll over, crawl, smile, stand, speak… and on and on.
Interestingly enough she actually DID DO all these things, but ALL were delayed.
However, because she DID them… eventually… in her own time… we didn’t worry. When we did worry, we were quickly reminded that all kiddos develop at different rates and that unfair comparison can cause unnecessary anxiety for parents.
So, more time passed. Important time. Critical years.
Regardless, to us, in the early years she was just our perfect hazel-eyed beauty.
