It’s April 1 – The start of Autism Awareness month, the return
of my daily #30facesofautism posts AND April Fool’s Day! I highlight the latter because I truly wish
that where we found ourselves today was a joke – a BIG joke. Being stuck ‘safe at home’, dealing with a
pandemic and a child who has no idea what a virus even is, has been challenging
– VERY challenging. The thing she DOES understand
right now is that she can’t GO to school and school is life for her folks. There have been major tears because she
misses her friends, her precious teachers, the “wholed school place” she says
between sobs. There have been major
meltdowns over the loss of her treasured routine and behavior the likes of
which we have never really had to deal with.
Awful faces, screaming, grunts of frustration and a mouth full of unkind
words. She actually hit her sister three
days in, the person she loves most in this world. The sweet sister who is
bravely trying to help her with virtual learning online, all while finishing
her final senior semester at Clemson from the comfort, more like confinement, of
our dining room. This is no joke, and none of it is funny. Over the last week everyone involved has
worked hard to try and make some order for her.
We’ve turned the dining room into a classroom and brought some of her
learning tools home for her to use. Her amazing
teachers and therapists have labored over creating a schedule for her that was
doable with assignments tailored to her unique needs. Yesterday was a whole day of getting her student
laptop to work properly and finding a set of headphones with a microphone so
she could be heard during live lessons and language therapy. We finally have all the parts and pieces of
her functional behavior plan together so that it can be implemented. I can see her trying to figure out this new normal
and today there was even some joy during “school to home”. Following her small group language session where
she was able to hear and be heard, see and be seen there was an actual smile –
no fooling!
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