My muse and Boo Bear keep funny hours. She woke me up at 2:30 this morning with an idea of something to write and refused to go back to sleep. Boo Bear followed suit soon thereafter. So, here we are. It is 5:47 am. The dogs have had breakfast and crashed out again. Boo is making happy banshee noises in his room. I have coffee. Life is good.
Boo has had an amazing summer. He absolutely loved his 6 weeks of summer school. He got his very own communication device and is chatting up a storm, mostly about places he wants to go and things he wants to eat. Summer is slowly winding down. He goes back to school in 15 days. He tells me multiple times a day that he wants to ride the bus and go to school. The love affair with buses that began in 2004 continues. We have spent a fair amount of time at Gillette Clinic this summer doing PT and OT. Boo loves PT. The therapist understood him and his needs deeply and intuitively. Boo craves deep pressure. This is probably one of the reasons he walks so much. So, we began working on other exercises that will give him the proprioceptive input he needs, but burn fewer calories and hopefully put a few pounds on his beanpole frame. She had him climbing through obstacles courses, walking flights of stairs, giving him tons of squishes, and to his incredible delight, letting him ride a recumbent tricycle. Boo immediately fell madly in love with this vehicle. Imagine a recumbent trike, big enough for a six foot tall man/child, that has a rudder and brake on the back so his helper can help him steer or slow down. We have done so many laps around the clinic and parking lots this summer. Boo Bear grinned like a madman the entire time, and the rest of every day that we rode. Next week we have an appointment with the Recreation and Leisure department to see about getting him a trike of his own. This make take some time to get, but the wait will be worth it. His other new PT device is a trampoline. All summer long Boo has been using his AAC to tell me he wants to jump on the trampoline. The other day a friend of mine mentioned that her kids had outgrown their trampoline and it was looking for a new home. Last weekend the tramp made the journey from their backyard to ours. Boo was stunned. He is still very cautious about it. He will sit on it and let me bounce him, or walk around on it holding my hands. His PT says these are all good things. He is getting tons of good sensory input just from being on the trampoline, whether he chooses to bounce or not. I have to confess that I have always secretly wanted a trampoline, so I am having a good time, too.
I feel so incredibly blessed by the wonderful folk at Gillette that understand and can meet my son’s needs. I am deeply grateful to Deanna Morrow, his speech/language therapist, who knew that Boo had the ability to communicate if he just had the right device. I am excited to see what this school year will bring. Students will be back in the building 5 days a week, wearing masks. Students at Focus Beyond, where Boo started last year, are going to be able to go out into the community and work at various job sites. I think this will be a year of great opportunities.
Thank you to all of you who follow Boo Bear on his adventures, who cheer him on, who believe in him. As a public service announcement, please get your vaccine if you have not already done so and wear a mask. You are not only helping yourself, you are helping your community as well. Eighteen months was a long time to be locked down. Let’s not do that again. Peace, y’all, and be good humans.
Harriet's Hedgehogs and Autism Advocacy 