Now, I have a long history (I won't go so far as to say "distinguished") working with folks of all ages with all kinds of developmental disabilities. If you had asked me, pre-James, whether I could handle such a thing were it to occur in my family... I'd have given you the exact answer I gave the geneticist who asked me that question when I was pregnant with the Devil and they were concerned she might have an issue due to my "Advanced Maternal Age" (read: you're old): "HELL yes, I can 'handle' it. Who better than me?"
Oh, sure.
I'm all about the person-centered-planning, baby. I like those objectives measurable and those goals attainable. I'm meeting you where you are and respecting choice. I got your significant deviations from the mean and your projected milestones and your self-stim and your sensory integration and your facilitated communication right freakin' here. I speak Clinician, yo. That's how I roll!
Riiight.
Except...
Can someone please tell me, as I continue on my freshly-launched campaign to ensure that the rest of the world never sees James as anything but the person he is,
how I stop measuring him against Autism? How do I stop noting, in my head, the 'normalness' (or lack thereof) of EVERY SINGLE THING this poor kid does? Will it always have to be all about the disability?
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why not re define what normal is ? I mean we have this picture , based on average. Our children are extrodinary. Don't use average and normal as a yardstick to make him measure up "less than " ..
ReplyDeleteDefine him by HIS accomplishments .. whenever he gets there if ever ... kid ate a breadstick right? love you
If nobody knows what autism is...maybe it doesn't exist? Or maybe you can train yourself to pretend for a moment that it doesn't. Think of him as eccentric.
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