One of the best pieces of advice I received (while in the trenches of diagnosis) was to remember to "enjoy my child". Really?!!? I am buried under IEPs, therapies, coping with all the sound, texture and social issues my child has? Who has time for that? We do!!!
Our kids have terrific focus and attention to detail. Need help playing that video game? Guess who to ask! Having problems on the computer....call your child. They see things in such a unique way you have to laugh and appreciate their perspective.
I want to share a story from a good friend of mine whose child came home with a project...a cigar box. "What are you to do with this?" "I don't know, my teacher just gave me this box".
Well, the box was for a project to use your imagination and make something....mom found out once she contact the teacher...due in 2 days! Her son decided they would make the witch's house out of candy from Hansel and Gretel. Mom had to spend about $30 on supplies. This house was spectacular -- it used every kind of candy possible. Red fruit by the foot for the roof shingles, icing walls with candy sprinkles on the outside, a blue candy front door, green grass icing poked with a fork to make the blades of grass, crumbled up oreos for the mulch on the flower bed, a rainbow colored sidewalk made out of colored sugar lined with red licorice borders, a blue icing pond with little candy fishes in it -- it was magnificent!
At the end of this very laborious project, the child had to fill out a self evaluation form and rate his creativity and effort on a scale of 0-3 with 3 being outstanding. He rated himself mostly 3's with a couple of 2's. The final question on the form was "How could your project be improved?" He wrote his answer with conviction....."IT NEEDS MORE CANDY".
Remember to enjoy your child :)
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