Conversation
“It’s time to go to school.”
“I’m coming.”
(You can hear him trying to get out of The Skipper Dog’s travel cage. What is the deal with kids and cages?)
“OK, I’m here.”
The Hub and I just looked at each other with this “what just happened here” look. He was compliant and used appropriate timely responses to communicate his intentions without the need for repeating on our part. Yahoo!
We have our monthly meeting with The Teacher today. I cannot wait! Doesn’t that sound a little odd? I’ve just been so proud of him lately and the strides that he has made at home since being in school that I want to hear how he’s doing at school. The next step will be community and how to transfer his skills to church and other public places, which I think will be simple (note I didn’t say easy). The only issue I have is hyperactivity, but then again, he IS four! I’m actually really enjoying seeing the two boys just being boys and romping around the house chasing the dog, wrestling each other to the ground until someone screams, and dragging packaging materials all through the house. I’m NOT enjoying cleaning up after them.
I feel very good today. I think I’ll be productive. The Gma is coming to get The Younger for the day while I get us ready for our trip. The Elder and I are wrapping gifts when he gets off the bus (he’s been practicing at school) and then we are meeting with The Teacher. The Housekeeper is coming to make me very happy. Then The Hub and I are planning to load up the minivan tonight (36 hours early). I’m being very optimistic!!
Victory!
Thank you to everyone who signed the online petition!!!
From ASAN:
I am pleased to inform you that this afternoon the NYU Child Study Center announced that they will be ending the “Ransom Notes” ad campaign in response to widespread public pressure from the disability community. You can read that announcement here (at the NYU Child Study Center’s website). The thousands of people with disabilities, family members, professionals and others who have written, called, e-mailed and signed our petition have been heard. Today is a historic day for the disability community. Furthermore, having spoken directly with Dr. Harold Koplewicz, Director of the NYU Child Study Center, I have obtained a commitment to pursue real dialogue in the creation of any further ad campaign depicting individuals with disabilities. We applaud the NYU Child Study Center for hearing the voice of the disability community and withdrawing the “Ransom Notes” ad campaign.Twenty-two disability rights organizations came together to ensure the withdrawal of this advertising campaign. Our response to this campaign stretched continents, with e-mails, letters and phone calls coming from as far away as Israel, Britain and Australia. The disability community acted with a unity and decisiveness that has rarely been heard before and we are seeing the results of our strength today. Our success sends an inescapable message: if you wish to depict people with disabilities, you must consult us and seek our approval. Anything less will guarantee that we will make our voices heard. We are willing to help anyone and any group that seeks to raise awareness of disability issues, but those efforts must be done with us, not against us. This is a victory for inclusion, for respect and for the strength and unity of people with disabilities across the world. It is that message that has carried the day in our successful response to this campaign. Furthermore, we intend to build on this progress, not only by continuing a dialogue with the NYU Child Study Center and using this momentum to ensure self-advocate representation at other institutions as well, but also by building on the broad and powerful alliance that secured the withdrawal of these ads in the first place. We are strongest when we stand together, as a community, as a culture and as a people.
Thank you to all of you who have made this victory possible. Remember: “Nothing About Us, Without Us!”
Regards,
Ari Ne’eman
The Autistic Self Advocacy Network, President
http://www.autisticadvocacy.org
info@autisticadvocacy.org
732.763.5530
Reading & Comprehension
Those were always my lowest scores on those standardized tests in grade school. I remember that by the time I was in high school I was very aware of this deficit (being the over high achiever that I am) and would concentrate so hard on the passage trying to figure out exactly what questions they would ask on the next page and I’d scanned the paragraphs in an attempt to memorize the whole thing. I still got low scores because the older I got, the harder and more complex the questions. I’ve been overanalyzing myself these days in light of The Elder’s diagnosis and then the recent suggestion by The Super Doc in our last three sessions that I am classic ADHD. I’m not exactly sure what about me is so classic, but as much as I hate to admit it, the more I talked (just being myself – finally to that point with her), the more she pointed out my traits. Dang it. Just what I needed, another lightbulb moment to explain the madness I call daily life. Now I have to follow the a-ha! trail back to my childhood (that’s the OCD in me, which I’ve always owned up to! Ha!). Reminds me of this post by Kristina. I always wondered why both my siblings have a passion for reading and I rarely ever finish a book (though I did finish Look Me in the Eye). I like to read. I love to learn. But I have to concentrate so hard to focus that sometimes I have to read out loud to myself. And I might get really excited about something that I learned in the first chapter that I’ll go make life applications based on that and never finish the book! I know I’m not alone so I’m not ashamed. I just always wondered how my brother could read The Hobbit in 2 days when he was in the 6th grade and I can barely get past reading the title as an adult. The Super Doc doesn’t push medication but strongly suggested it with each time I put my foot in my mouth and showed my adhd colors. Well, see my last Success Sunday quote. The good news is that I’m already on the gluten-free-casein-free reduced diet. If I see no significant change then I’ll stop the meds. I’m specifically looking for consistent executive functioning skills. I tend to be one extreme or the other. The scenario that really gets me is when I spend all day on my agenda, that by the time I’m done, it’s bedtime and the day is over. I think that is why I do well flying by the seat of my pants. The no-reading thing I can live with.
So this post wasn’t really about MY reading and comprehension skills, but The Elder’s. As you recall I have witnessed him read an entire book by himself. Well, The AP takes them to the library every Friday while I’m at a church group meeting and they check out books and videos (that has actually been great for shaking up his routine. “Sorry we returned that book to the library already, pick a different book.”). Well, today after doing some great pretending (The Elder was the bus driver, I was his little girlfriend on the bus, and The Younger was The Elder on the bus – it was hilarious. We also pretended to be in the classroom, but once I told him that the bus driver doesn’t go to class, maybe he should be The Teacher, he decided he wanted to be himself so that he could pick a (PECS) card and play games. Then he told me what to say…”Now you say, ‘You may now go to your centers.’ Say it, just like that.”), we decided to read some library books because we hadn’t cracked into them over the weekend and he pulls out a sequel.
“Are you going to read it to me?”
“No, you read it.”
“Let’s take turns.”
“OK, you first.”
“It was Easter morning…your turn.”
“The Easter Bunny hid ten hot-paynk (TN twang for pink) marshmallow…I like marshmallows…chickens, um, chicks. aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaall over the house.”
We continued like this until I smelled The Younger. So I leave The Elder on the couch with the book to go change a diaper (Yay! It was solid). As I was cleaning him up and spraying off the diaper (we tend to always forget to use a liner when he poops), I could hear The Elder continue to read aloud. It was so cute! He was using proper story-telling inflections in his voice. He read the rest of the book by himself! You can tell when looking over his shoulder that he doesn’t sound words out as much as he tries to recognize the word first. Like saying chicken first, then correcting himself to say chick. In the past, he has said “away” instead of “always”; “engine” instead of “english”; “violin” instead of “vitamin”; etc etc.
Well, I thought I would test his comprehension level and skimmed the book and started asking questions about the the story and he got all of the questions right!
“What color were Ruby’s chicks?”
“Paynk”
“What color were Max’s chicks?”
“Lellow…and they go pop pop pop pop through the mail pop.”
“Mail pop?”
“I mean mail slot.”
“How many chicks did he get?”
“Just ten.”
I verified with The AP that she hadn’t read the book to him before, so it was his first time reading that book. Gushing with pride. Watch out standardized tests! We got a genius on our hands!
