SHAL­IZA HAS­SANALI

Se­nior In­ves­tiga­tive Re­porter

shal­iza.has­sanali@guardian.co.tt

Sev­en-year-old Eli Grif­fith, di­ag­nosed with AD­HD, had the chance of a life­time to live out his dream of be­com­ing a po­lice of­fi­cer for a day. On ca­reer day at Mara­bel­la Gov­ern­ment Pri­ma­ry School, Eli proud­ly donned a po­lice uni­form, a gift from his dot­ing grand­moth­er Deb­bie Pe­ters.

The sight of Eli in the blue vest with the word “po­lice” em­bla­zoned on the front, a grey sweater, black pants, beanie, hand­cuffs, and badge wasn’t just a play­ful cos­tume—it was a boost to his self-es­teem and a mo­ment of joy that made him feel seen, mo­ti­vat­ed, and spe­cial.

For Eli, that day marked more than just a role; it was a step to­wards re­al­is­ing his dreams.

Eli’s dream to be a po­lice of­fi­cer for one day stemmed from his grand­fa­ther Nor­man Grif­fith, a cor­po­ral who served in the T&T Po­lice Ser­vice for 27 years.

Grif­fith, 69, died eight years ago af­ter health com­pli­ca­tions.

“Eli didn’t know his grand­fa­ther, but he saw pho­tographs of him in his po­lice uni­form. It has al­ways been a dream of his to fol­low in his grand­fa­ther’s foot­steps, to be­come a po­lice of­fi­cer. I want­ed to make his dream come true even if it was on­ly for a day,” said Pe­ters, who us­es a cane to move around.

Pe­ters wait­ed for an op­por­tu­ni­ty to make it hap­pen.

When Pe­ters heard that Eli’s school was hav­ing a ca­reer day, she bought him the po­lice cos­tume in a store in Mara­bel­la.

“That lit­tle boy was so ex­cit­ed when he put on the po­lice uni­form. He kept say­ing, ‘Granny, ah look­ing re­al nice, eh. Granny, I will make you proud.”

Pe­ters ad­mit­ted her grand­son brought tears to her eyes and put joy in her heart.

She knows Eli has come a long way, giv­en what they went through in the last few months.

Last De­cem­ber, Eli, a sec­ond-year pupil, be­gan liv­ing with Pe­ters af­ter his moth­er strug­gled to man­age his be­hav­iour, which was lat­er linked to AD­HD.

Pe­ters said Eli’s par­ents had been sep­a­rat­ed, and it be­gan to af­fect him in many ways.

“Eli felt ne­glect­ed,” she said.

“He of­ten com­plained about that. He start­ed lash­ing out and was not lis­ten­ing.”

Pe­ters said she of­fered to take Eli un­der her wing af­ter speak­ing with his oth­er grand­moth­er.

At first, Pe­ters said her pa­tience ran thin deal­ing with her on­ly grand­son. She had to find a way to keep Eli in line.

Pe­ters had to re­vert to teach­ing Eli “old school val­ues” of re­spect, man­ners, and dis­ci­pline.

At first, en­forc­ing dis­ci­pline was chal­leng­ing, but over time, Pe­ters found that con­sis­ten­cy, struc­ture, and emo­tion­al sup­port helped Eli ad­just.

“I en­forced the dis­ci­pline and rules. I had to let him know im­me­di­ate­ly that I was run­ning the house, not him. I took con­trol. The minute he slipped, I nipped it in the bud. It was a chal­lenge. It was tough.”

The grand­moth­er al­so showed Eli love and picked him up on his school­work.

“Every­thing I did, I asked God for guid­ance.”

Pe­ters ad­mit­ted that she had to get ad­vice from dis­abil­i­ty ad­vo­cate Leslie-Ann Jol­ly Hug­gins. At one point, Hug­gins said, the sit­u­a­tion be­came over­whelm­ing for Pe­ters.

“I had to tell Deb­bie where to go to get help for Eli and con­stant­ly prayed with her. It was chal­leng­ing,” Hug­gins re­called.

In four months, Pe­ters said she start­ed see­ing a change in Eli’s at­ti­tude, be­hav­iour, and school­work. How­ev­er, she was still not sat­is­fied.

Deep with­in, Pe­ters felt some­thing was wrong with Eli be­cause of his hy­per­ac­tiv­i­ty and ag­gres­sion in school.

“The teach­ers would com­plain all the time. He got in­to fights in school.” This wor­ried Pe­ters. Al­so, his school grades were poor.

“With the help of Eli’s oth­er grand­moth­er and fa­ther, we or­gan­ised a spe­cialised teacher to give him pri­vate lessons af­ter school every day, which we pay for.”

Pe­ters said Eli’s grades have moved from Es and Fs to Ds.

“I was so hap­py when he got the Ds. I hugged and kissed him be­cause it’s an im­prove­ment; we are see­ing progress,” Pe­ters said.

In Jan­u­ary, Eli was di­ag­nosed with AD­HD af­ter eval­u­a­tions by a psy­chol­o­gist. His fam­i­ly is now work­ing close­ly with pro­fes­sion­als to sup­port his needs.

“I am just await­ing a date from the health cen­tre to help treat the AD­HD.”

AD­HD is a neu­rode­vel­op­men­tal dis­or­der that im­pacts at­ten­tion, im­pulse con­trol, and hy­per­ac­tiv­i­ty. Peo­ple with AD­HD of­ten ex­pe­ri­ence dif­fi­cul­ty fo­cus­ing, stay­ing still, and man­ag­ing their be­hav­iour, which can af­fect var­i­ous as­pects of life, in­clud­ing school, work, and re­la­tion­ships.

It is one of the most com­mon­ly di­ag­nosed men­tal dis­or­ders in chil­dren and can con­tin­ue in­to adult­hood.

Pe­ters said many peo­ple are un­aware that Eli suf­fers from AD­HD and think he is a bul­ly and trou­ble­mak­er. She said once he came home and asked if some­thing was wrong with him.

Pe­ters re­as­sured him that AD­HD does not mean any­thing is “wrong”—it just means his brain works dif­fer­ent­ly, and they are there to sup­port him.

She said the fam­i­ly mem­bers have been hold­ing Eli’s hands along the way.

The over­joyed grand­moth­er said she would not give up on Eli, who has be­come her pride and joy.

“Eli is my every­thing.”

Her ad­vice to oth­ers fac­ing sim­i­lar cir­cum­stances, “Trust God, and you will al­ways see the light at the end of the tun­nel.”