TheBanyanTree: I was a shadow...

[Sachet]

My daughter, Chelsea (19), has asked me to come to work and shadow her 
for the last few months. She's worked part-time as an Applied Behavior 
Analysis tutor since last May while going to college. Our schedules 
finally meshed on Friday and she told me arrive at 11:45am so that I 
could shadow the last fifteen minutes of one session and thirty minutes 
of the next before I had to leave for a 1pm appointment of my own.

Each tutoring session is between one tutor and one student for an hour 
and a half. When I arrived I found her in a corner of one of the rooms 
with 9 year old "David". He was sitting in a chair with his shoes and 
socks off and she was on her knees beside him.  About every 30 seconds 
she would take his socks, put them in his hands and calmly tell him to 
put his socks on. Between prompts she turned to greet me and told me 
that she'd been in a stand-off with David for 45 minutes. Which sounds 
bad, but is actually pretty good, because a few months ago, David and 
one of the male tutors were in a stand-off for four and a half hours. I 
was hoping that this wasn't going to be one of those days, but 
fortunately David has made great progress in so many areas of his life. 
He's highly intelligent and very strong-willed, so some days he can 
still be quite a challenge if he chooses not to be cooperative over 
things that he's already mastered. You have to have a sense of humor. I 
turned away for a mere second to glance around the room and the next 
thing I know David is running through the door, down the hall and 
Chelsea is giving chase. She calmly returned him to the chair and 
repeated the prompts. After one more minor tussle, David finally 
complied by putting on one sock. Wow, the praise reigned down and he 
smiled. With more prompting he put on the other sock and then his shoes. 
Lots more praise and he was then encouraged to choose something from his 
PECS (Picture Exchange Communication System) book. His book is 
jam-packed with pictures since is ability to communicate via his PECS 
book has escalated in the past few months. It took him 8 months to learn 
to use one picture and he now has over 100 in his book. He flipped 
through it so fast, chose one and off we went outside for a ride in the 
wagon. After a few more exchanges it was time for lunch. My respect for 
my daughter grew even greater as I watched how she interacted with him 
and his eager responses.


http://abcofnc.org/

If you click on the link, then on "news" and scroll down to "Ricky" you 
will see a picture of an adorable 7 year old boy. I got to meet him 
Friday since he was the student for the 2nd session. Chelsea adores him 
and she wanted to make sure that I got to meet her favorite student. For 
the first seven years of his life he has never been able to speak. Two 
months ago he formed his first word and continues to add more to his 
list each week. On Friday, he said my name! I was so excited!!!! We all 
cheered for him. This is just one small example of the happiness that 
you FEEL pervading every corner of the center.

As I leaning against the wall, watching Chelsea and Ricky, another tutor 
and 3 year old Heather walked by. Heather stopped, looked up at me and 
smiled. When I bent down to bring my face to her level, she climbed up 
in my lap and laid her head on my shoulder. I melted as I hugged her 
close. Chelsea told me she doesn't usually do that. I felt about ten 
feet tall.

Some of Chelsea's friends and family think that her job must be terribly 
depressing when actually it's the exact opposite. Yes, the children are 
autistic and yes, we all wish they could talk, laugh and communicate at 
a "normal" level. But the center is filled with such busy happiness that 
there is no time to be sad nor the slightest inclination. Every 
accomplishment, no matter how minute, is fulsomely praised, toys that 
stimulate communication are everywhere and every single child is 
learning to communicate in new ways that bring blessed relief, 
much-needed encouragement and indescribable joy to their families.

I now have a much deeper appreciation and respect for what my daughter 
does at her job.


...Sachet