A Perth mum is calling on the community in a bid to raise funds for a new sensory playground for kids living with ADHD while shining a light on the heartbreaking reality of raising children with the disability in WA’s education sphere.
Down a secluded road in Perth’s western suburbs, seven-year-old Rex and his siblings are making the most out of the little patch of grass at ADHD WA’s new hub in Mt Claremont.
Watching on is Rex’s mum Peta Drury, who has recently launched a GoFundMe to raise funds to build a playground on that same patch of grass for children with ADHD to use during the days they spend at the hub.
It would really mean so much more than just a playground, Mrs Drury said.
They need a place to be noisy, to be inquisitive. They need to feel like this is a safe place, that they’re welcome here.
The idea and need for the fundraiser came after Mrs Drury discovered that ADHD WA, a not-for-profit group that provides support, advocacy, and people affected by ADHD, did not at the time receive funding from the Government.
I was absolutely shocked to find out the organisation doesn’t receive any Government funding, she said.
After I started to send Rex here, I realised that this place is swamped. It desperately needs all the help that they can get.
Since moving to new digs in Mt Claremont, ADHD WA has welcomed a $39 million State Government investment into child development, including new workshops to help children with ADHD find self-acceptance, develop self-compassion, and build resilience and coping skills.
For kids such as Rex, it means he can be supported in a meaningful way that Mrs Drury says is missing from his schooling experience.
In school, he didn’t have enough support, she said.
He was constantly being told by teachers and kids that he was naughty, bad or faulty.
It wasn’t until one school morning that Rex’s situation reached a painful breaking point when he said to his mum he no longer wanted to be alive.
At that point, I had had enough of school. I was like ‘I am not going to let you break my child, I’m taking you home’, she said.
She took 12 months off work to look after Rex, including hiring a teacher to home-school him for a term, as well as changing pediatricians to find a medication that best suited her son.
But despite Rex’s chapter having a positive turnaround, Mrs Drury said there remains serious gaps in the system, especially WA’s education sphere, that were failing kids such as Rex.
This issue in the health profession and in the education sphere is huge and it has been ignored for too long, she said.
I know how much my child suffered with having ADHD at school, and then you can multiply that thousands and thousands of times. My story is not unique.
Her cause is being supported by Kylie Seal-Pollard, who also has children diagnosed with ADHD and claims the State’s education system is not rightly funded to support children with the disorder.
Most of the time the school can’t help, or in some cases won’t help, because they’re not adequately funded to do it, Mrs Seal-Pollard said.
When your kid is suicidal at age five because they don’t want to go to school, that’s frightening.
It’s a really low place to reach as a parent when you don’t know how to help your child.
As the afternoon sun comes out behind the clouds, Rex sits patiently on a bench, occasionally poking at the graze on his knee that he got after taking a tumble on the concrete slabs that cover the grassy patch.
I’d love a playground, like one of those monkey bars that spin in circles, the little boy says through a toothless grin.
When I first came here I thought there would be a playground. But there’s not.
His smile begins to fade, replaced by a look of confusion.
I don’t like school, he says, looking back at the spot where he tripped on the concrete.
But at least school has a playground.
