The Only Disability Is A Bad Attitude

I love that quote.  Allison Williams, a fourteen year old girl with Down Syndrome, gets the credit for that quote. She was not allowed to be on her high school's cheerleading squad due to her disability.  Below is a link for more information about her situation.

If a person can keep a positive attitude, so much more can be accomplished.  Sometimes, when my boys with autism hit an obstacle, they tell me why they can't do it.  I tell them that I am not interested in what they can't do.  I am interested in what they CAN do.  They set their own limits. Then I am always astonished at their accomplishments.  They are too!

I look back ten years to when the boys were first diagnosed and the "unfavorable" prognosis for them.  Not much hope was given.  Well, no hope.  My husband and I had a choice to make, and that was literally a life threatening choice for our sons, ie whether they'd have the best life they could have or not.

As they are now growing up, that choice is becoming theirs.

What type of life will they lead?  Do they wish to pursue their dreams and push their potential or not?  Will they continue to thrive or just survive?

The answer remains in their attitude.

http://www.ohiolife.org/blog/2013/6/17/ohio-high-school-bars-student-with-down-syndrome-from-cheer.html

Ryan Graduates

It's been a long time in coming.  Ryan graduates, and he is done with schooling.  For now at least.  It's time to celebrate.

Ryan was three years old on his first day of school. He did not go to pre-school.  He went to a "communicative handicap" class.  He did not talk.  At all.  At this point I had never paid attention to the word autism.  No one said Ryan had autism.  Ryan just didn't talk.

Maybe he was deaf.  Maybe his brothers talked for him so he didn't have to.  Maybe his mother just held him too much, so he didn't develop normally.

I heard all the above and much more from doctors and family members. None of it was true.  Ryan had been talking.  Ryan talked, laughed, smiled, played.  All normal, typical behaviors.  Then it all stopped.  Autism hit. Fast forward through years of diagnostic tests and multiple therapies, we arrived at a milestone.  Graduation.

Ryan has successfully completed a general course of study.  That only tells of the academic success.  There's also the mastery of sensory issues, spinning, talking, etc.  Ryan may not have been valedictorian, but his accomplishments are no less.

Very proud of him!