TJ Maxx Blog Fodder

Side by Side

I am counting the offering at Vacation Bible School again this year. We have a stellar counting team of three and finished an hour early today. With some free time, I spent some time people watching as people went through the halls. (Actually, I was waiting for a teen that I was to deliver to a swim meet in the middle of VBS. I got to do people watching while I waited since we finished stacking, wrapping, counting the offering.)

Two teenage girls caught my eye. They whizzed quickly around a corner and walked past me, shoulders touching, two young women completely in sync. They were deep in conversation; I'm not sure they knew I was there. They navigated a couple of steps together, dodged people walking toward them, navigated another corner, and stayed physically in sync the entire time.

Multi-tasking. Coordinating actions. Co-regulating. Moving together, in sync, a common location in mind (probably the snack room), the same pace, moving, talking, turn taking, interacting, seamlessly.

Quite a contrast to the blog post I wrote recently about a very different couple that I observed.

The non-verbal pieces are really important for our kids on the autism spectrum. Making sure they get practice and experience in the multi-tasking, coordinated actions, co-regulation is not high on a lot of lists of professionals and teachers, but it should be.

Two-wheeler

A memory that I revisited today. Glad I found the video.

There are classes to teach bike riding to children with special needs.  When I see ads for those classes, I am always reminded of how different our kids are.  Maybe you've heard the saying, "You've seen one kid with autism, you've seen one kid with autism."  True.  The challenges our kids face are quite individual.  So are the strengths.  My kid all of a sudden demanded the training wheels be removed from her bike.  And within minutes, she was riding it.  Blew us away.

26- April-2008
She demanded the training wheels be gone and she got on the bike and rode it.