A mum has praised a young man who stepped in to help calm down her five-year-old son, who has ADHD and autism.
Gayna Pealling recalled how she was traveling home with her two children, Jack and four-year-old Amy, when she said her son “started to have a meltdown”.
She explained on Facebook:
“There was a couple that were chatting with him at first then this random lovely stranger called Dan took over, and he was talking to both my children.
“He calmed my son down and the train journey was perfect…thank you to this man, you really don’t know how much I appreciated your help.
“This guy is my hero.”
Gayna and her kids had to change trains at a nearby station, making the train journey longer (and busier) than normal, according to HuffPost UK.
She told the publication:
“Jack likes trains, but not the waiting around and not knowing what’s going on.
“It started getting really busy and by the time we got on the train, he was angry and upset, he was cursing and kicking the chair. It got out of hand.”
The mum-of-two added that many people around her were tutting and staring at them, so she tried to explain to the carriage that Jack has autism and ADHD; asking her fellow passengers to bear with them.
She said that at one point, when she was trying to get Jack to take his daily medication, the young boy started screaming that he didn’t want them – and that’s when Dan tried to help.
She explained:
“Dan shouted out: ‘I take tablets so how about you show me how to take them’.
“Jack said alright I’ll take the tablets. Dan started talking to my daughter and colouring, and after a while Jack wanted to sit with him, too.
“Jack wanted to wave goodbye after we got off the train so we did.”
They all sat together for the rest of the journey, which was almost an hour.
Gayna told how she put the photos in a ‘Spotted in London’ group, which is how she was able to get in contact with Dan and able to thank him again.
She added:
“Unless you know about special needs, you don’t know what it’s like. People assume you’re a bad parent or it’s a bad child.”
Featured image via Facebook/Gayna Pealling.
