Special People

Some of you may know that my younger son has a slight disability, Persuasive Development Disorder, Non-Known as Autism. We had to move on and accept the fact he has a disability, and continue to work with him throughout his life.

There is no need to give us anymore sympathy because we have seen remarkable improvements in Ryan's overall performance: socializing, communicating, and eye contacting. The best gift of all is that he does have a sense of humors and very affectionate in MANY WAYS.

Not too long ago, David and I did search for a variety of activities for Autism Spectrum, we found one local one in San Diego. Our first and experimental event was going to "Annual End of Summer Family Party " with an Old Fashioned Family Barbecue to savor the last moments of summer and to celebrate the new school year. To our surprise, we indeed were lucky that there was a volunteering sign language interpreter for a full three hour of activity. It gave us a positive impression that the committee did try their best for not leaving us out. Since there was no communication barrier, we enjoyed chatting with several other parents and the people from the committee.

There were mild to severe Autism children from age five to fourteen years old (My best guessing) came along with their siblings. It did open my husband's eyes a lot more than before while I have seen daily at my school site. The parents joined the fun by watching their child doing the water slide jumper, indoor swimming, eating treats, hamburgers, hot dogs and all the fixings, and getting the door prizes.

The best part of being there were:

1) We unexpectedly won the Grand Prize ! (I chose a large tote bag, four beach towels,plastic ice cubes, and collapsible can cooler!) I thought it was a perfect gift because we used to either carrying our four beach towels, or stuff in our backpack.)
2) The President of San Diego for Autism has asked me if I was interested in giving a small presentation at San Diego Convention Center in October! I was stunned, yet felt so good because he told me that I had impacted them a lot because David and I are one of the deaf minority parents with a hearing Autistic kid. They were wondering how did we work with him, and how he did the most awesome personality at the swimming event. Boy, I would have to ask you for advice because I have never or ever give a presentation, especially at the convention.

Besides getting the positive experience at our first Autism event, we also learned more special events for Autistic children only:

1) Teaching them to Surf
2) Teaching Swimming from Aqua Pros Swim School s an individual instead of teaching in a
group
3) Going out to Day Camp in San Diego area

I image that I will open my eyes a lot more than I had anticipated.