The Wonder What Factor

This is our bathroom window. Could it be a robin who overindulged at Taco Bell? A can of white paint falling from our roof? Alas, it is neither of those things. I won't keep you in suspense any longer. It is the spatter that comes from a toothbrush whose bristles are being manipulated by an unmedicated 19 year old ADHD-er. Your pre-schooler may have done something similar with old toothbrushes and paint. It's as if George Seurat got going on a window painting and then decided it was just too many damn dots and abandoned the effort. I don't know what people in the "biz" call this, but I call it the "Wonder What" factor. From the moment BD could independently move his body from one place to the next, he has sought out opportunities to explore the outer reaches of an object's capabilities. Often this comes in the form of taking things apart. Other times, it's finding a unique use for an everyday object (sticking a plunger on his stomach at the age of 4, and struggling to remove it, comes to mind). The plunger trick was relatively mild, and did not have any adverse effect.

However, when the TV remote has been disassembled (and chewed) to a state of dysfunction, there may be some strong emotions involved. As a parent (and I'll admit even as a teacher), I have frequently fallen into the trap of exclaiming, "What were you THINKING?" upon coming across a destroyed electronic device, or a student who tore artwork from the wall. It should come as no surprise that this is a ridiculously stupid question. If the person with ADHD were to give you an honest answer to that question, even if they COULD answer it, you would only be frustrated by the response. For BD, taking apart that TV remote undoubtedly had to do with my "Wonder What" factor. I wonder what is inside a remote? I wonder what these buttons are made of? I wonder if the parts of this remote look similar to the parts in our last remote (yes, we've gone through several over the years)? The "Wonder What" question that seems to NEVER get asked is, "I wonder what will happen to our TV after I take apart the remote?"

Many years ago, I stumbled upon a wonderful Memoir/Guide about ADHD, written by a young man in California. He wrote the book during his junior and senior years of high school. His name is Blake E. S. Taylor and the title of the book is ADHD & Me-what I learned from lighting fires at the dinner table. In it, he describes the "Wonder What" factor this way. "A person with ADHD does not think about cause and effect, does not connect the dots between thought, action, and consequence. You shoot pebbles because you want to see them fly, and you don't think about the objects in their path." He goes on to say "I would get an idea and be so intent upon seeing the action, experiencing the action, getting a zing from the action, that I didn't have time to think about how it might turn out or whom it could affect." (p. 27 and 28.). Impulsivity is one of the more unsavory aspects of ADHD, and certainly the one with the most negative outcomes. But what if the brain that is constantly thinking "I wonder what..." could be harnessed into a forward thinking, problem solving machine? I don't have the answer to that. So far, all I see is a basement bedroom strewn with various computer components in varying stages of decay, and a partially burned Bounce dryer sheet (because BD probably WONDERED WHAT would happen if he set a match to it). Anyway, I don't have time to look for answers right now. I have to go clean our bathroom window.