You can’t take away his sparkle!
Last week Nolan was sent to the principle’s office for hitting three kids. They were making fun of his glasses. This week Nate and Kelly met with the ABA professional for results of testing Nolan has been undergoing for a few weeks. No surprise, but still hearing the autism diagnosis makes things real. Above average intelligence. Not a surprise either. Tested 2nd grade level in reading and math. He just started 1st grade. Amazing to all of us, he tested 4th grade level in listening…which I’m assuming includes comprehension.
I’m so grateful to be included in the inner circle. It will take time to research, process and develop an action plan, but Uniquely Human is an excellent start. That night Kelly shared this from the intro:
“…some professionals, they see certain behaviors as “autistic” and undesirable and perceive their goal as eliminating these behaviors and somehow fixing the child.
I have come to believe that this is a flawed understanding – and the wrong approach. Here is my central message: The behavior of people with autism isn’t random, deviant, or bizarre, as many professionals have called it for decades. These children don’t come from Mars. The things they say aren’t – as many professionals still maintain – meaningless or “nonfunctional.”
Autism isn’t an illness. It’s a different way of being human. Children with autism aren’t sick; they are progressing through developmental stages as we all do. To help them, we don’t need to change them or fix them. We need to work to understand them, and then change what we do.”
Later that night Kelly sent out a group email to her family and friends. Brecken’s response hit the nail on the head in only a few sentences, and is filled with hope:
Thanks for the info! He is a wonderful little guy and you guys have done an amazing job raising him His quirkiness is endearing and gives him character. He always makes me laugh! (“You can’t take away my sparkle!”
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Walking out to the car after class Friday Nolan’s “I’m so proud of you!” several years ago came to mind. Boyd must have been napping. Nolan and I were tossing a big ball outside. Every time I caught the ball he ran to hug me exclaiming, “I’m so proud of you!” I that kid! Tanner was so proud of himself Friday. The expression on his face was priceless, obviously so happy about the work he did.
The aframe obscures the view of the tunnel. The course was left from a 4-day OMD seminar the previous weekend. Those courses are usually designed to be worked in segments and a focus on a particular skill within each segment. We ran 1 – 20 initially, walked the course with Lori and then chose something to work on during our next turn. (#9 was a jump, not the tire.)
My dogs offered lots of off-course teeters. 🙂 Yes!!
Tanner had a blast the first run. He loves ‘the things’ and if he’s ever able to cope with a trial environment we’ll start with Standard for sure. Mid run I said he thought he was at the playground! Zopa did a decent job with this hard course full of many challenges.
Zopa and I worked the start through the weaves, focusing on getting from 1 – 2 without the off-course aframe, the teeter and the weave entry coming out of the tunnel. Lots of good work!
I wanted to work Tanner’s weaves and a send to tunnel entrance #35. Whee! Not only is that entry back in the corner, but the dog can’t see it. He did a tremendous job of continuing to work on something that wasn’t ‘clear’ to him and when he succeeded the expression on his face, as I said, was priceless. He was so tickled with his accomplishment!
