Turning the Ropes

When I use myself differently in order to give Little Bit opportunities to physically coordinate herself with me, I am so much in the present, in the moment, that I am not looking ahead at how these skills and functions will be helpful later.

There are times when we must coordinate ourself with another person in a parallel way. Sometimes, we're a mirror image. Sometimes, we're doing something completely different while together. And usually, that coordination is something we are so practiced at that we simply do it, without thinking about it.

Jump rope class is an illustration of the coordination that we had to intentionally create opportunities for. We didn't use jump rope as one of our opportunites, yet, the experence she got allows her to take a jump rope class. Being the jumper is one role, coordinating your movements between two turners. Being a turner is yet another role, with attention in two places, on the other turner, and on the jumper.

Giving your children w/ asd lots of opportunities to coordinate, physically, with you, at non-verbal levels, is so important! Giving opportunties required that I be intentional, to look for opportunities, and it required that I learn to shut up and be quiet and slow down. Not easy for me.

I am beginning to see how the opportunities we have been working so hard to give her are opening the door to new opportunites for her. A jump rope class is one of those new opportunities.

At this week's class, the students ended with a turn to turn two ropes, Double Dutch style. Here's Little Bit's turn. She was turning them too big at first, and Coach intervened with a close-up demonstration. (Do you realize just how much processing that requires?) She got it - look at the last photo.

Don't get me wrong; I know we still have a way to go. Her motor planning gets in the way. She's got to make some discoveries about the benefits of practice between classes. I could write a list. I'd rather focus on the growth I'm seeing and the fact that we're on our way!