party/playground success

Submitted by an LD OnLine user on

I just want to share an experience we had yesterday at a birthday party. This was a birthday party at a skating rink that had an indoor gym type thing. It was about two stories high and had strong nets for floors at all different levels. The kids climb into all different sections some of which have swings or different types of openings and big slides. It was very noisy and chaotic. This is the type of thing my child would not have done six months ago. Previously, she was afraid to enter these things, would never have attempted the slide wihout a lot of coaxing, and would have been very upset by the other kids rushing past her sometimes bumping her!

Well, yesterday my daughter ran right up to this thing and went right in! She climbed steadily to the top and checked out all of the different levels. Other kids would rush past her and even in small areas it didn’t phase her at all! She went to the biggest slide looked at it and walked away. She went only a short distance before she must have changed her mind and went right down the slide! When she got to the top and at all different levels she’d look out at me with a big smile and yell “hi Mom!”

I have to admit that just watching her being able to play like any other 7 year old child was such a wonderful thing! I stood there and cried just watching her! I thought of all of these other children running around and how it’s taken for granted that kids can play like this! I know for my kid it’s a whole other set of challenges that many of you here can relate to! It’s one of those things that unless you’ve been there yourself it’s hard to relate to what a feeling it is to see your child being able to enjoy something that comes naturally to most children. She has made such progress in the past few months. It’s amazing! It seemed like a small victory but really for us it was a major accomplishment!

Submitted by Cathryn on Mon, 03/15/2004 - 5:05 AM

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Jen, that’s so beautiful! I would have cried too. You know I understand that feeling.

Thanks for sharing those moments of happiness with us! :D

Submitted by JenM on Tue, 03/16/2004 - 2:42 PM

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Thank you everybody! The other shoe dropped yesterday! She was such an emotional wreck that we had to cancel the vision therapy! Isn’t that how it is sometimes? I’m hoping she was just overtired from her busy weekend! Here’s hoping anyway!

Submitted by TerryB on Wed, 03/17/2004 - 12:32 PM

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Jen,
What exactly happened? I’m thinking that it is pretty extreme for the emotions to result in her missing something that you feel she really needs. I’m wondering if her therapist should be aware of this.
Terry

Submitted by JenM on Sat, 03/20/2004 - 3:51 PM

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Terry, there was a long response to your question. Don’t know where it went. Maybe accidentally deleted somehow? Anyway, I hope you read it before it disappeared!

I just wanted to add that overall it has been a good week. Monday was tough and last night she started to lose it. However, last night I noticed that as she was crying she was also yawning a lot so I really think she was just overtired. It was a hard day academically. She had three tests in one day! Seems like an awful lot for first grade! She did very well on them.

Today we had swimming lessons again. Previously, swimming lessons had also been very hard for my child. She would cling to the instructor for dear life. We’ve never pushed it too hard but I do really want her to know how to swim. So whenever she asks for lessons we sign her up right away. This time I thought if it didn’t work out well we could do private lessons! Well, she is doing terrific! She is even going under the water! She still won’t let the instructor let go of her even if the water is not over her head but we can now see a day where it might be possible!

It is such a good feeling to have these little/big successes! It helps to balance out all of the other things that happen!

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