That is a quote that my sister in law has hanging in her house and it is one that I have always loved. I do this with my kids quite often, we have our dance time where we turn up the stereo and just dance and have fun. It is something Quinn loves to do, besides liking music he just loves to get down and be silly with mommy and his brothers. It's good for me too.
Today I wish to God I had been with Tom when he picked up Quinn from preschool because when Tom got there Quinn was in a circle of kids, in the middle dancing with a little girl, giggling his butt off and just being a kid like the way it is supposed to be.
He loves preschool and that is putting it mildly, while he was happy to see Tom (who FYI had on his lovely dump clothes pulling the trailer behind the van) but he was NOT happy when he realized he had to leave.
The change in him is nothing short of amazing and in my mind another one of those little, or rather BIG miracles we have been so blessed to see.
To describe what his therapy has been is difficult because it has been a mix of a few things that I tailored to him, but I did use very little ABA because it was not right for him. The principles of Relationship Development Intervention formed the base of his "treatment" I found it to be much more naturalistic and to simplify it is all about helping the child want to be with others, to seek out others and form relationships. I say this all of the time but that was so much more important to us than learning to put a round peg in a round hole.
RDI helps to stimulate the areas of the brain which are often inactive in a child with Autism.
We would and still do spend about 3 hours together (now it tends to be numerous times through the day) and I did all kids of activities from normal everyday tasks, to games, songs, fine motor, matching you name it we do it but there are always a number of goals embedded in why we do each thing and I spend a lot of time testing his limits as far as focus and anticipation, mutual enjoyment etc.
We have definitely learned through all of this that Quinn is a very bright little boy whose receptive language skills amaze me still because the odds were not at all in favor of this being a strength. He can watch someone do something once and then days later he will repeat it.
This is not something he has seen anyone do BTW, just to clear that up before I go on... but last week I was making the boys lunches and I heard the familiar sound of Quinn playing with the TV. He likes the sound it makes when you turn it on and off (sounds like a bad Atari game) but this particular time I checked around the corner and I see “we are currently processing your order for the Playboy Channel”
I'm pretty sure I sounded like a wounded dog grabbing the remote from him and I see the progress bar like you have when you download. When it finished I held my breath and THANK GOD it said “sorry you are not currently connected to a phone line” Now that is why they have parental controls. Of all the hundreds of channels you could have clicked on, it just had to be that one because when Quinn does something he makes a statement. Then I could not stop laughing for about an hour and he was jumping on his mini trampoline looking at me with a cheeky grin and giggling.
He keeps me on my toes. Somehow he reprogrammed my printer just by using the panel on the front and I had to uninstall then reinstall the whole thing. He is also obsessed with getting his picture taken??? He now will shove the camera at me (etiquette is not his forte yet LOL) and then sit there with his goofy grin waiting for me to take the pic. THEN he grabs the camera to see the screen. Geez talk about modern day kids, if I pulled out the old point and shoot 35 mm he would be confused. He poses too, it is hysterical.
One of his big things is singing of course the words are not understandable but he walks around singing and smiling all day. He also has a habit of doing this from 2:30-5;30 in the morning EVERY night but he is getting better, maybe only every 3rd night. But LOUD, the child is loud but happy and who in their right mind would want to stop that. My mom knows all about this having spent 2 weeks with him in NYC and I of course would just laugh. The secret to this is earplugs or an MP3 player and pretending he is not their even though it sounds as if you are smack in the middle of an very very off Broadway opera or musical. I always hope the hotels we are in have thick walls and the ones that don't well that might account for the bangs on the ceiling or floor. Oh well!
We are back to Sick Kids next month and he will likely have a few appointments in the next few as we have been putting them off as long as we could. What I am looking forward to is having him walk into the examination rooms and down the big hallway with the footsteps. The last time he was there he could not walk. He very likely will plant himself in front of the elevators which serve as a very big deal to him and I have this feeling I will be riding them for an hour or so.
The child that will for the first time be walking into that hospital is not the same one who was there last. I'm just going to let him loose because I can and run after him as he giggles his way down the halls. We need to make new memories there, the old ones are not so good. If anyone asks why I am letting my crazy Quinn run down the hall, my answer will simply be, because he can.
There is nothing that child can't do, I truly believe he was put here to teach what it means to have inner strength, to not take no for an answer and to show that no matter what religion you believe in miracles do in fact happen everyday. When you are open to seeing them you will see that even the smallest ones need to be celebrated. And the big ones well after you catch your breathe and realize what you are seeing is in fact real, throw the biggest damn party you can think of.
Most importantly never look back, never forget where you came from but have faith and keep your eye on the future.
My son was dancing holding hands with a girl, wow.
2 days ago
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