Yesterday morning, I turned on the computer in the kitchen for AJ, so he could watch The Wiggles on You Tube. Then I returned to the living room, leaving AJ to wait for it to finish booting up. It's a 6-year-old laptop. Booting up can be a long process, but AJ knows that and it's taught him patience.
A few minutes later, I was in the living room with Aliza when suddenly I realized I could hear the faint but unmistakable strains of "The Monkey Dance" coming from the kitchen.
I investigated and sure enough, AJ had somehow not only started Internet Explorer himself but then brought up You Tube and The Monkey Dance search! It's in the favorites, so it's not like he had to type it in.....but still!!! It was so amazing I have to overuse exclamation points!!!
I watched him for a few minutes while he worked the computer. He moves the mouse while watching the cursor on the screen. When he has it hovering over what he wants, he pushes the "select" button on the laptop touchpad. I had to pick my jaw up off the floor. I have to stop helping them all the time and just sit back and watch what they can do on their own.
We must stop underestimating these boys. It reminds me of an email that recently made the circuit in my Fragile X email group about "Least Dangerous Assumption." It's all about how dangerous it is to assume a kid whose been labeled with a disability cannot learn. I foolishly assumed he could not run the computer by himself when actually he watched closely whenever I did, and he learned!
He doesn't seem to know how to use the clicker on the mouse and that is just fine by me -- I need a couple of days to adjust to this new level of intelligence he obviously has.
Hey, I wonder if he could figure out how to change ring tones on my Blackberry? I can't figure it out. Options? Settings? Tried them. I have done it before, I just can't remember how I did it and it's not in any logical location on the settings screen.
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Aliza did some slippin' and slidin' this week in the backyard. Wrecked the grass, but if the grass is too tidy, we didn't spend enough time out there running, kicking, sliding, rolling, and smashing it down. That's my theory.
A perfect lawn would mean we don't get out there to enjoy it. A lawn wants rambunctious little hooligans to terrorize the heck out of it, I believe. A happy lawn is a little weedy and bedraggled. By that definition, our lawn is positively ecstatic!
1 comment:
Amazing, aren't they?! We've had to learn the hard way that Ian CAN do things on his own. But why bother if someone will do it for you, right?
Totally agree with the backyard thing. Ours has turned into a burnt grass disaster. I don't even flinch anymore....anything to beat the heat without always having to go somewhere.
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