the beauty of being 'you'
This week in camp we have another little girl who is on the autism spectrum. She is very high functioning, just her processing time is a bit slower, and she takes most things you say literally. I have been working with her and really trying to focus on my language and the directions I am giving to her. At first, I was just trying to make sure she was safely on the horse, so I was not as focused on it. But I started to realize, I needed to be concise. When we first started off she was on the mounting block about to get on the horse, I told her to 'jump up,' and she literally just jumped up and down because she didn't understand. Once she was on the horse, I told her to look up, and she stuck her head straight up staring at the sky. I told her to hold her hands like ice cream cones, and she stared at me and said, 'but I'm not holding ice cream cones, I'm holding reins.' I smiled and said, well you are so right, and tried to think of another way she would remember how to hold her reins correctly. The other trainers were getting frustrated and did not understand this and simply thought she was trying to be difficult or funny. I tried explaining that she takes things very literally and just be very direct and thorough with your language. Instead of saying, look up, try saying, "let's look straight in front of you." As time went on, she began to trust me and kept asking me to watch her on the horse, she was a proud little rider by the end of the day. If you've met one child with autism, you've met one child with autism. No one is the same. And that is beautiful.