Hi!
I have been planning to create this blog for a long time now... but when something extremely fascinating is happening right before your eyes, you don't really feel like turning away to tell what you just saw!
Well, that's exactly what happened with us once we embarked on a "journey" (also known as his Son Rise program) with our 4 year old Aditya being in the driving seat. We never knew how well he could drive... until we gave him a chance! But once he did, it was so amazing I just wanted to soak it all in, not look away for a second!
Now... of course you know that I am not talking about his driving. I mean, he does ride his bike reaaaaally well, including the way he applies his brakes on a notice of a second. But in his life too, this little guy, perhaps since his birth, has basically been trying to figure out how to navigate a chaotic world that he has been immersed in. Why this happened to him... we still don't know about. I am talking about his autism, of course, when I say he feels as if he is at the center of "chaos".
Thus, the challenge for this little guy, ever since the age of 1, has been to figure out a way of operating in a world of people that demand "normal" and "compliant" behavior from him while exhibiting very unpredictable behavior themselves. This, while lights, fans, switches, legos, cars, trains, vacuum cleaners, and microwave ovens offer a highly predictable and hence a hundred times more appealing interface!
Before I get distracted and talk about his peculiar behaviors that always suggested something is different about him, I want to take a deep breath and remind myself that today... I want to talk about his journey "away" from his world "into" our world, that HE has begun.
Today is the time we want to celebrate and congratulate ourselves for having discovered a wonderful approach known as the Son Rise program which encouraged us to first take control in our hands (not in the hands of a school district or a therapist) and then hand it over to Aditya... for what we long for him is he knows how to drive in this world while also enjoying the view... much more than knowing how to follow a 4 step instruction from a therapist!
Having only spent 3 months in this program (and that too only under 10 hours a week), we are thrilled to see Aditya navigate his immediate surroundings with much greater comfort, exercise choices and make assertions, and talk about "people" in his play situations.
In fact, just today when we first called a lady who responded to our advertisement for volunteers, Aditya asked us who we were calling. "Someone named XXX " said we.
"Why you calling XXX?"
"She said she wants to come and play with you."
"With me?"
"Yes, you. Do you want her to play with you?"
"Yes!"
"You like people coming home to play with you?" (Note: we have a couple of volunteers now)
"Yes!"
....PAUSE....
Then comes the question: "Does she speak Marathi or English?"
"English" say we, "is that okay?"
"Yes! What's Marathi called in English?"
"It's called Mawratui" I say with a "put on" accent:-)
If you have a child with autism, you know how much this interaction means to me!
I feel grateful to the Kaufmans who chose to think originally and created the uniquely wonderful Son Rise program... but I am also grateful to Aditya for having shown me that happiness indeed is a choice!
Signing off for today,
Abhijit, an elated Dad!
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