Amy Herring has been a professional astrologer for 15 years and a proud mother for 6 of those years. She has joyfully accepted Mlle. Kiddie’s gracious offer to share her thoughts once a month here at Kiddie Star Signs. To find out more about Amy and her personal readings for parents and children, visit her website at http://heavenlytruth.com.Money and fame don’t solve every problem. Celebrity moms have their hopes and worries for their children too. However, Mlle. Kiddie would like to offer ‘everyday’ moms a chance to see astrology put into action to answer their parenting questions. After all, famous or not, you’re the world to your kids! If you’ve got a question about your child that you’d like Amy to answer, send your questions any time to amy@heavenlytruth.com.
Stephanie writes:
My son Silas is almost 20 months and seems to be having a harder time than most children his age at verbally communicating his wants and needs. His pediatrician even suggested that we get him into speech therapy, just to help us help him and to ward off any negative behaviors. His father and I are already pretty sure he has ADD. He doesn't pay attention to me very well when I am trying to teach him new words, or he just smiles and nods his head and laughs.
He hasn't gotten really frustrated yet because I've been able to somewhat figure out what he wants. He definitely tries to talk, so he's not disinterested.
I was curious to know if there is any indication in his chart of any type of learning disabilities, and if so, what would be the best way to approach his personality type?
Amy answers:
For questions about communication and speech, Mercury tops the list. Silas' Mercury is in Capricorn in the 11th house, but most interesting at first glance is that it's conjunct his north node, which indicates that it represents part of his life's challenge and soul development. This can and will mean many things, such as learning to communicate with authority (Capricorn), and to let go of any fear or reluctance about sharing his opinions or making it known what he thinks (11th house=public), so there are rich possibilities for development throughout his life when it comes to how he expresses himself as he matures.
Consideration for the overall picture reveals his south node in Cancer in the 5th house, which indicates a potential desire to remain 'in the womb', so to speak, to have his needs taken care of and be sheltered enough to, well, stay young and protected, not having to do for oneself. His Capricorn north node indicates he's come to develop a sense of independence, and self-reliance, hence so many placements in his chart that indicate a need for freedom (such as Uranus in his first house of self, and three planets in freedom-loving Sagittarius). With Uranus prominent in his chart, he can probably be quite stubborn and independent.In light of this south node, one thing you can do any time you are able is to be conscious of not enabling him by intuiting what he wants, something moms can be very good at, and something that's very instinctual to do, especially when they're still babies! It'll certainly be challenging for him, but without this necessity, he'll easily fall back on south node behaviors of having his needs provided for him.
You expressed concern about potential ADD, which I can't say is or isn't present, as that's for a professional to diagnose, but there are a couple of chart indicators that can sometimes be consistent with that possibility. His Sun and Moon are in Sagittarius and they are in a square to Uranus in Pisces, which is a difficult relationship (getting planets that square each other to work in harmony is challenging--they represent the points of inner tension and self-sabotage in us unless we work consciously with them). He is probably going to be interested in bigger ideas and concepts, tuning in more easily to intuition, sudden knowing, and may have a vulnerability to jumping to conclusions, as he's likely to have little patience for the nuts and bolts of boring things like fact-checking, sentence structure, and the like. ;) He has the makings of a sort of philosopher, though, if he can reign in his thought processes.
His outlook on and style of approaching the world is governed by his Pisces Ascendant, which tends to receive a wide variety of impressions and can sometimes get overloaded by the level of input. This can sometimes make concentration challenging as it he can get not only overloaded, but more easily distracted than some.
To take it down to practical terms, speech therapy, whether or not it's absolutely necessary, isn't a bad idea to assist him. Mercury (planet of communication and learning) is in the sign of Capricorn, and the sign Mercury falls in describes the nature and the method that's most ideal for the learning and communication process. Capricorn benefits from a structure and a clear set of rules and boundaries to understand what is expected. The structure will help him learn to reign himself in and communicate what he needs to, as well as give him the specific tools (sounds, for example) to focus on at this age. A more structured daycare program (as opposed to simple babysitting) may also provide this, although in a less-intensive manner than the one-to-one that speech therapy would provide.As far as learning disabilities, I don't see anything in the chart that looks too extreme that would indicate severe problems. His Mercury, other than being on his north node and representing a bit of a soul 'learning curve' is otherwise unafflicted (not hampered by difficult aspects) for the most part, so his hurdles in this area shouldn't be gigantic or impossible to overcome. If ADD is present due to other factors I mentioned above, they no doubt can be managed.
Would you like some input on how to understand and nurture your child in the most effective way for their unique needs? Amy offers readings for parents and children; find out more at her website.
