Blogging has been a neat experience for me. Not only have I been able to reflect on the
many things Philip is teaching me, I have been making many new friends who
share the experience of having a loved one with autism. I have never met them in person. They live in far off places like California,
Louisiana, and the other side of the state I live in. Yet with each person, I feel an immediate bond
and kinship. We are part of a special
club that is uniquely blessed. They tell
me my blog inspires them. They in turn
inspire me with their stories, ideas, and love for their kids.
I have asked permission from Ellen to post her story here:
“I too enjoyed reading your blog. It is never too late to
start learning about our autistic children. RPM, Soma and Brianne have changed
our son’s life for the better. He will be 45 years old next month. The first
time he worked with Soma was 4 years ago. These last 4 years we have found out
all about the total person that lives inside a "locked body". He is
bright, thoughtful, funny, inquisitive and frustrated. We view him differently
and treat him differently now. He is still autistic, but he is also a full
person. Since he lives in a group home and we spend the winter out of state we
have very little opportunity to work with him using RPM. However soon we will
return to Austin to see how Soma can help him to move along to become more
independent. He currently says each letter and then the word as he touches the
letter board. He then types three words he just spelled on the iPad. This still
requires someone with RPM training to help guide him. His progress is amazing.
We have so many wonderful quotes from him. One of my favorites is, "I want
to thank my parents for never giving up on me."”
My desire is that more people will find these stories of
hope. When I read Ellen’s son’s words of
thanks for never giving up on him, it struck a chord in me. It’s never too late. It’s never too late. I think a lot of parents out there need to
hear that. I needed to hear that when I was
going through the years Philip was showing no progress, when the nagging
thoughts “it’s too late, it will never change, you’ve failed your son” replayed
in my head and brought me to the brink of despair. People need to hear that even at age 41, it
is not too late. I love Ellen’s words describing
their discovery of the “total person” that lived behind her son’s locked
body. As a society, we need to see autistic people as being as complete as anyone else. They are not less than or deficient. When we start viewing them as such, we run the risk of seeing them as a burden, a nuisance, something less than human. It is scary to think about the repercussions of this thinking. I believe every person born on
this earth is a total person, worthy of respect, dignity, and love. Our kids, no matter what the age, are worth
fighting for.
If you are reading this and are a parent who is despairing
because of their child, feel free to comment or message me on FB. If you want to contact Soma to teach you how to more effectively communicate with your child, please visit
www.Halo-Soma.org .
It is never too late.
Philip at the Lose the Training Wheels Camp 2012
I always think of Sarah and Abraham. They thought it was too late and too matters into their own hands but God had a plan and he had promised them and made it happen at his own timing.How hard it must have been for them to wait! Sarah must have laughed at the promise..
ReplyDeleteBut we now know from Sarah that God's timings are different from ours.
No, it is never too late to get into the WORD and get into the faith.
Love this post!!
have a great day.
We are just starting here is CA
Abraham is one of my heroes for the very reason you mention. He wasn't perfect by any means, but he was commended for his faith and God gave him favor and kept his promise. Out of everyone in the Bible, I relate most closely to Abraham! It is so true that our timing is not God's timing.
DeleteGreat to see you are a woman of faith too!
Love,
Lisa
As part of our writing prompt, I asked Sanjay yesterday what he would do first if he were the President of the U.S.A?
ReplyDeleteHis answer was" If I were the president of the usa, I would allow all kids to go to school everyday because kids need to adapt to new places and compare with other children"
Sanjay is currently homeschooled and I intend to continue. We have been talking about this for a long time... since moving to CA, just this week, we were given a tour of two self contained classrooms which we all went to see.
I was pretty sure that Sanjay would do well in the classroom because he is a quiet child and would just stim all day long but I am sure that he would not learn much. His previous assessment done 3 months ago revealed that his expressive and receptive knowledge at a 9-12 months level !!! Yes, you read that right.. 9-12 months.
I just don't feel it right to send Sanjay to an environment where they feel that he is at that level.
But he is not liking me making him do "school" at home and is constantly indicating that homeschool is nothing short of a third degree torture.
Today, I continued my question and asked him, what else would he do?
His answer" If I were president I would call all daddies and ask them to spend more of your time with your children because kids need a little while to spend with their daddys going to places"
I guess today was Dad's turn to get bitten.
Sanjay is quite the clever child! I support you in your home schooling efforts! It really is hard to find just the right school situation for our kids. Maybe you can supplement his home schooling with some outside activities with other kids where you can shadow him for communication. Have you found a group in California where you can get mutual support for you and Sanjay yet?
Delete