The five year old girl came carefully down the stairs (she felt unsteady on stairs generally) singing the latest Westlife single at the top of her voice. “YOUU LIFT ME UUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUPPPPPP!!!”
Her Dad grinned to himself and recorded as much of the song as he could on his mobile. His daughters rendition of ‘twinkle twinkle’ was already his ringtone – the one where she’d mischievously substituted the word ‘diamond’ for ‘daddy’, making both her parents howl with laughter.
She came into the front room and had a brief acclimatising rock in front of the telly then grabbed the remote, switched to the DVD channel and used the remote to navigate perfectly to her favourite bit of her Bear in the Big Blue House disc (her overly anal in such matters Dad bemoaned the lack of good standardised interface design on DVD menu’s until her Mum told him to shut up).
“Wait a minute….ITS YOU!” Said Bear and sniffed the telly for a few seconds, an event that never failed to send the little girl into a fit of delighted giggles. Once finished, she rewound the DVD and made Bear sniff her a few more times, then she grabbed her own stuffed Bear toy and made Bear (via a tragic impression from her Mum) sniff her again.
Although the little girl was five she still used a feeder cup to drink from as she still hadn’t got the hang of ‘putting it upright’. A fact demonstrated in the interestingly hued furniture and carpet throughout the house. Today she fancied Sunny Delight, a fluorescent looking drink which helped with her occasional constipation.
Drink in hand (she pointed it out to her Mum to illustrate what she wanted) she walked over to the PC, grabbed the mouse, started Firefox (her Dad had banned IE from usage), clicked on ‘bookmarks’, scrolled down to her favourite game of the moment and completed the puzzle based game perfectly. As ever when he witnessed this event, her Dad wished he owned a digicam as he knew there were quite a lot of people who simply wouldn’t believe what they’d seen from this unchelated, uninjected 5 year old autistic girl who’d been diagnosed with Kanner’s autism at age three but due to her own abilities, perseverance and skills coupled with the love, acceptance and encouragement of her parents and siblings was making steady progress towards goals she herself felt comfortable with.
Her parents loved her very much. Just the way she was.
Left Brain Right Brain 
*grin*
I know a seven year old unchelated and uninjected lad who yesterday won the prize for the most improved junior aged pupil in his school…
The seven year old, who doctors said would never talk, also narrated his class’s play perfectly and sang carols beautifully into a microphone to a packed hall full of parents.
His Mum thinks he’s pretty fab the way he is, too 🙂
B xxx
… however, if it had been a Barney DVD intervention would be entirely justified.
(very sweet)
hmm .. who could it be?
…she walked over to the PC, grabbed the mouse, started Firefox (her Dad had banned IE from usage)…
Very, very sweet, Kev!
Has this girl discovered the A-B button on the DVD remote? If you want to see a fit of delighted giggles, put her 5 second favorite bit on an infinite loop.
Thank you Kev.
Whoever the little girl is she sounds wonderful.
🙂
Ms Clark is listening to the same 3 or 4 songs on iTunes over and over and over and recently discovered the joy of “loop” on iTunes….
“You gotta be Cruel to be kind, …. cruel to be kind, …. cruel to be kind” (watch the blog for a parody of this by anonymous, the famous one)
Hehe, brightened up my day reading that that did 🙂
Hope she and you all have a fantastic Xmas Kev 🙂
I know an unchelated autistic girl who just turned six and who does very similar things to this one. The one I’m thinking of operates the DVD player and rewinds and pauses and such over favorite scenes (sometimes so many times it starts to drive any adults in the vicinity slightly more mad than they already are), chooses different DVDs to suit her moods, can tell the “special features” DVD from the main movie “DVD” and so forth.
She also has her own computer (because her uncle is running for the title of “World’s Greatest Uncle”) and knows how to turn it on, put in the CDs she wants to play, although she still hasn’t mastered the idea that she can’t just turn the computer off without a proper shut-down (thankfully, there’s not much data on the system and it won’t do too much damage, and Windows 98 will autoscan after such an event). This little girl will even assist her younger sister, who can’t always operate the mouse well enough to play, but still enjoys the games when the big sister helps her.
Little autistic girls can be a real challenge, but they can also be very rewarding children, from what I hear… 😉
Great post! It’s wonderful to experience those magical moments in which we see how far our kids have come.
Here’s to a New Year filled with those moments!
“Still need to know who I am, then cop the record
Take it like a class on me and learn the lesson
Bottom line, my world my way, any questions
Who’s that girl
La la la la la la, la la la la la”
-Eve Jeffers, “Who’s That Girl”
Aw, great post Kev.
A lovely post Kev.
Merry Christmas to you and yours!
Lovely Kev
Chip off the old block Kev 🙂
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year
A very merry Christmas to you, your wife, and especially that precious girl.
I got so caught up in the spirit of the season that I forgot to comment on the post. We may disagree (in your case, Kev, most agreeably) as to the necessity and efficacy of various interventions. But I think we can agree that the most important intervention in ANY child’s life is a parent’s love. This little girl obviously has an abundance of that.
From a bunch of friends 6 hours across the world, love and best wishes to that precious girl, her daddy and the whole family…
What a lovely little girl! And what a wonderful post! Merry Christmas to all of you.
I listened to this little girl’s singing and it was so like my own wee lassie’s singing…. I couldn’t help but smile – even with all the shit that is going on around me now!
Nice one, Kevin.
WR: “But I think we can agree that the most important intervention in ANY child’s life is a parent’s love.”
Hear, hear! Well said, Wade.
Luffly! Spot on, Wade! And merry christmas to you too.
Grinning to myself here–no need for a digicam, Kev. Your words provide the best portrait because they’re full of pride and love.
Nice one Kevin. A wee heart warmer of a post. If only I knew what unchelated meant…….
Merry Xmas and a Happy New Year.
I know someone who discovered Bear in the Big Blue house this weekend. You’d never guess what her favourite bit was.