Page 14 - IFV Issue 8 August 2026

Estate News

THE DISTANCE BETWEEN

POTENTIAL AND PERFORMANCE

late understanding of ADHD the walls, the sink, her fiancé and and could do better.
can change the way a woman Maggie’s arm. Some reached the plug Her parents responded by finding
r
A eads her entire life. For The socket, and the electricity went out. more support. Maggie attended extra
Bridge School’s occupational therapist Standing in the kitchen, she English, maths and Afrikaans lessons,
Maggie Wong, it began with a pressure remembers thinking: “Surely this isn’t Kumon and Chinese school.
cooker, a kitchen covered in pasta how most people’s brains work.” None of it addressed the difficulty
sauce and the sudden realisation that Maggie is an occupational therapist underneath.
perhaps other people’s brains did not at The Bridge School in Lonehill. “I always felt I had the potential, but
work quite like hers. Through her work with neurodivergent I could never show for it,” she says. “I
Maggie Wong calls it the pressure children and through hearing other spent my childhood feeling like there
cooker incident. people describe their experiences of was a gap between what I knew I could
After a game of squash, she invited ADHD, she began to understand her do and what I actually produced.”
her fiancé, cousin and his girlfriend own life differently. In an earlier Dainfern Precinct article,
home for dinner. The pasta was ready As a child, she did not fit the familiar Dr Moray Shirley explored why ADHD in
and only needed reheating, but the picture of ADHD. She was not failing, women is so often missed until adulthood
pressure cooker was set for 25 minutes, disruptive or bouncing around the or midlife. Public understanding has
and everyone was hungry. classroom. Her marks sat consistently in long been shaped by the more visible
Maggie released the visible steam. the 70s. presentation commonly associated
When the lid still would not open, she What followed her instead were the with boys. A girl who is not disruptive,
persuaded her fiancé to help her force it. comments many capable girls hear: she achieves reasonable marks and works
Seconds later, pasta sauce covered had potential, made careless mistakes hard to compensate can pass through

12 • August 2026 • The Villager