Journey With Joshua

On the last Saturday before the last week of camp, Rosemary White offered a Parent/Child camp which both Bryan and I were thrilled to attend with Joshua.  We had a great time and both of us benefited a lot from the guidance of Alek and Annie, who have had a lot of experience working with Joshua.  Alek worked with Joshua with Annie, while we were doing OT and has been helping her mom run the camp.  Both Bryan and I think Annie, Alek and Rosemary could walk on water.  They are good folks and really know what they are doing.

Joshua pretty much took us on a tour of what he does at camp and Alek, who was paired with us at first.  (Each of the 10 families in attendance had a Floortime Player or therapist who worked with them and their child, guiding us in our interactions so as to help our children in their interactions and development.)  After first meeting with Rosemary, who prepped us for our time, we met up with Joshua, who was outside, playing on the big toys, as was his routine.  Joshua was eager to engage in the “Catch and Spin” Game, of which Bryan and I took turns and then he showed us how he climbs up some parallel bars and slide down a spiral climber.  He then led us inside where he found the Mario Kart remote control cars and gave one to Bryan to play with, whereupon he ended up breaking off Mario’s head and worked to get it back on, doing so with Daddy’s help.  It was really neat how Joshua initiated the play and showing Daddy what he wanted to do while accepting suggestions to enrich his play experience, making it a shared activity.

Alek was remarkable, giving us insight as to how to help draw him out and encourage interaction, providing feedback as we played with Joshua.  At one point, Joshua laid down in one of the room with five cars surrounding him and looked at them.  Alek remarked that it seems he needs time to re-0rganize himself and encouraged me to woo him back into some interaction and become a point of reference for him as he demonstrated the plan he had for the cars he had lined up.  Josh would replace a car I had moved, back to where it had been, while then giving me a car to play with, wanting the interaction to continue.

We then transitioned to Annie, Joshua’s former Occupational Therapist, who remarked how much she had missed Joshua and our family.  Josh, after reconnecting with Annie, took us back outside and to the play houses.  He then took off across the field and Annie had Bryan sit at  a mattress midway between Joshua and me.  Josh took Annie clear across to the end of the field and then looked back at Bryan and me.  He then decided to come back and ran all the way back to me, who was inside the play house.

Joshua was having a lot of fun with both of us, and we were too.  He then took us to a play structure and pulled Bryan into playing with him by doing another spin game and then climbing up on the structure to show Bryan how powerful he is and jumping off when he was at Bryan’s chest level with his feet.  He is such an amazing kid!

As camp wound up, I got Joshua’s snack for him as Rosemary led the group in the “Goodbye Song”.  Joshua sat with Daddy and Alek, whom he began to play the “Nose Bop” game.  Alek is teaching him to modulate his behavior to “bop” in a more gentle manner by guiding his hand to her nose.  (Now to utilize that technique when he tries for our glasses!”

We were so grateful for the experience and learning various techniques and insights in regards to working with Joshua.  We are so blessed by all those who contributed to Joshua’s Summer Camp fund, to make this dream a reality.  We have so much to learn and although  I have Stanley Greenspan’s “Engaging Autism” book, I now just need to take the time to read it, as well as continue to work out ways to get Joshua back into therapy this coming school year, in addition to his special ed services at his school.  It’s encouraging to see some movement being made in his development.  I remind myself of:  Slow and Steady wins the race!  I’m sure in 10 years, we will be even more amazed as to how far he comes.

This entry was posted on Thursday, August 11th, 2011 at 7:51 am and is filed under Autism Resources, Autism Treatment, General Autism Info. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.