Sweet Neighbors

My girl saw the neighbors outside, swinging, yesterday afternoon, and asked me if she could join them. We asked if it would be okay if she headed over for a few minutes. They graciously and enthusiastically said, "Yes!"

And with three children, they had enough to play Chinese jump rope, something I'd never heard of. They taught my girl how to play. She stood on the end and held the rope as a first step. Nice scaffold to allow her to learn the game. "In. Out. In. On." That's a lot to remember. And a lot of motor planning. And she did it - while I stayed on the sidelines and kept my mouth shut. She didn't need me (how cool is that?!)

The kids spent time swinging, time brushing their dog (we don't have a dog and my kids would love to have one), and time jumping in a jump rope that we moms twirled for the girls.

We need lots more experiences like these. She's ready. The practice will move her forward.

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!

Double Dutch

Coach told us today about an October class for adults, so that we can twirl ropes for our kids and jump with them, help them. As out of shape as I am, I am still considering registering for that class...

WHATAREYOUDOING????!!!!!!

A local homeschool group gets together for group classes, organized by parents. One of the moms organized a jump rope class, led by a professional who coaches a performance and competition team.

I asked my homeschooler if she'd like to try the class. She said yes. I signed her up, paid the fee.

The first class was this week.

I was a bit nervous. My girl, notsomuch.

We pre-paid for a jump rope. When we arrived for the first class, each jumper was given a jump rope and each jump rope was cut to fit. Here's Little Bit trying her pre-customized rope:

The coach measured Little Bit with her rope in order to customize it for her. Little Bit needs more processing time and more specific instructions than some of the other kids, and the coach noticed immediately and made an adjustment right away by becoming more concrete and by showing Little Bit what to do. Really nice. I relaxed a little. (The coaching team knew that there would be a child with autism in the class; they reassured me weeks ago that they've included students with autism in a public school setting before.) I reminded the coach that this is the child with autism. She said, "No problem." She told me she works with high schoolers, includes students with disabilities like autism, and she said, confidently, "We get every one of them jumping."

An Important Discovery For Mom

Class began with some stretching and warm up, with some stretching while sitting on the pavement. (see pic below) The coach asked each child to tell his/her name, age, where he/she was from. I slipped in beside Little Bit to be there if she needed help. She looked at me like I was crazy, leaned toward me slightly, and whispered urgently (and loudly) through clenched teeth, "Whatareyoudoing??? You're supposed to be WATCHING!!!" So, I got my big butt off the pavement and went to stand with the parents. I could see her introduce herself but I could not hear what she said.

The class was a mix of jumping solo while turning your own rope combined with little exercises, activities, drills (not sure what to call them, exactly) without the rope. They jumped on their toes. They jumped back and forth over ropes that were flat on the ground. They did get to hold one end of a rope with coach on the other end and twirl the rope for a classmate. You should have seen my girl twirl! (Do you know how much coordinating, co-regulating, motor planning that takes?!)

As class ended, I saw what all the drills, activities, exercises led up to: Double Dutch. The coach and assistant twirled two ropes and each student jumped between the two ropes in motion. First, the coach had the child begin to jump on his/her toes. And then the coach and her assistant twirled the ropes around the child who was already in motion. And my kid was GREAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! She's in the white long sleeved sweater, black pants, and the coaches in black outfits at each end of the ropes are twirling TWO ropes for her. AMAZING!