Thankful

In the spirit of Thanksgiving week, we thought we’d take a step back and share a couple little moments with our kids and families that made us smile the past couple of weeks. We feel very thankful to be involved in the lives of so many amazing parents, children and other professionals.

-Being handed a handmade Thank You card from one incredibly cute 5 year old. This was then followed by the best hug I have gotten in a good while.

-My little friend with autism was out of school for a week and a half because he was on vacation. On his first day back, I arrived to his classroom before him. His little classmate asked if my friend would be there today. I told him that he would and the little guy then yelled “YES!!!!!!!!” paired with the most intense, heart-felt fist pump I had ever seen.

-To see another little friend of mine who typically has such high anxiety to interact with his peers, being surrounded by 4 other little five year old boys just chatting away and cracking up at each other. My friend had a look of happiness in his eyes that I hadn’t seen from him before.

-Being told by a dear mommy that I have the “best job” and then agreeing with her.

-After helping my friend and his little buddy play an awesome game of Hi Ho Cherry-O, my little friend then turned and looked at me and said, “I want to play Hi Ho Cherry-O EVER Tuesday and Wednesday!!!” (the days he has speech)

-Social games are sooooo hard for one of my friends with autism. During one single recess time, with my help, he played Duck Duck Goose, Simon Says AND a little game called Mr. Clown with a huge group of friends without turning away, without retreating and without having a tantrum. He also led the Mr. Clown game like a champ.

-After practicing “Go Fish” during several speech therapy sessions with friends, my little guy with high functioning autism played with two other friends for 25 MINUTES with minimal help from me during a session. When the game was finished he told me, “Playing Go Fish with friends made me happy!”

-I evaluated a new friend who was initially scared to talk to me or look at me. By the end of the evaluation, we were sharing a bean bag chair, reading a book and cracking up about pumpkin pie.

- Me and a little friend were talking about our pets. As I described to him my kitty, he then asked, “can I come over to your house to see her?” Being asked by little kids if they can come over to my house or if I can come over to their house is the BEST.

We hope your Thanksgiving week was filled with many “smileable” moments too! Happy Thanksgiving!

~Amanda & Laura
KidSpeak, LLC
www.kidspeakdallas.com