Posts Tagged father of son with autism
First Lesson
Posted by Larry Blumenthal in Communicating, Daily Life on November 15, 2010
“So happy to be here.”
That is what Clay typed as a greeting when we got to the stables for his first official riding lesson. Last time we took him to Sommerfield Stables at Water Stream Farm, he surprised everyone by climbing on a horse named Rocky and going for a ride. Over the years, we’ve taken Clay for swimming lessons, gymnastics, fitness classes, soccer. Looking for something, anything, that would grab him. Nothing stuck, until we discovered his interest in farm animals this past summer. He has taken to horses, in particular, with a natural comfort level and enthusiasm we have not seen before.
When we got out of the car on this sunny fall afternoon, Clay went straight for the stables. A few horses were in stalls being prepared for riding. He touched each one. Even leaned his forehead against the muzzle of one that was a foot taller than him.
Clay started his lesson by learning to brush Rocky, comb his tail and dig the dirt out of his hooves.
New Friend
Posted by Larry Blumenthal in Communicating, Daily Life on November 9, 2010
Ready to ride home
Clay didn’t have a lot to say about the new dog that joined our family this weekend. At least, not right away.
On Friday, shortly after I came up the walk with Miles on a leash, nose skimming the ground in true basset hound fashion, Clay typed, “short and cute” for the sitter who works with him several afternoons each week.
On Sunday afternoon, when my mother asked him what he thought of the new dog, he typed for me, “Think he is cute.”
Except for a few tentative attempts to pet him on top of the head when prompted, Clay kept his distance from Miles most of the weekend. The little guy has vision issues, partly centered around judging distances. If you toss a football to him from a few steps away, he will put his arms up to protect himself. When we go walking in the woods, he struggles going down steep inclines. His reaction to meeting a dog, whether it is coming up the path in our backyard or when visiting family or just out and about, is to prepare to be jumped on. Read the rest of this entry »
Wasn’t Me
Posted by Larry Blumenthal in Communicating, Daily Life, Silly Behaviors on November 3, 2010
If you think about it, even for just a minute or two, you’ll see that this was not my doing.
After all, I’m the one that suggested we take a break after we lost our dog last week. I was the voice of reason.
But then things started happening.
First, without a dog in the house, it suddenly became clear just how much food Clay drops on the floor. He takes heaping handfuls of pretzels or chips, much more than he can hold, then leaves trails of food throughout the house. He is also a master of what we call the “bite and toss,” an odd compulsion where he flings the last quarter inch or so of a french fry or apple slice or chicken nugget indiscriminately. It’s a miracle no one has lost an eye. Clearly, we needed another dog for housecleaning purposes. I couldn’t very well let the house be overrun with ants, could I? Read the rest of this entry »
Talking Geese
Posted by Larry Blumenthal in Communicating, Daily Life on November 1, 2010
The ducks and geese were chattering, honking and generally making a ruckus out on the water when we got to Clay’s favorite nature center Sunday afternoon.
“We’re so surprised about the geese,” Clay typed, sitting on a bench along the trail.
“What surprised you about them?” my wife asked in response. Read the rest of this entry »
Not Forgotten
Posted by Larry Blumenthal in Communicating, Daily Life on October 29, 2010
Maverick 1999 - 2010
When Clay was about six or seven, and still using speech to communicate, he came in the kitchen door one afternoon and announced that our dog, Maverick, had treed “an old cat.”
My wife dutifully headed into the backyard to check on the situation and found Maverick, a yellow labrador retriever we had adopted at the age of 1 1/2, barking at the base of a maple tree. When she looked up to see whose “old cat” he had forced up the tree, she saw, instead, a raccoon the size of a small bear, hissing and spitting and making a strange moaning sound.
She wisely got Maverick and Clay back in the house until the angry raccoon came out of the tree and waddled its way off our lawn. Read the rest of this entry »
Yo, Adrian, Part 2
Posted by Larry Blumenthal in Communicating, Daily Life on October 27, 2010
Sitting at our kitchen table a day after Clay surprised us by riding a horse during our trip to Water Stream Farm – bareback no less, the glow remained.
“Still feeling happy,” he typed on the keyboard he uses to communicate, when asked about his ride on Rocky.
“Would you like to write a story about it?” my wife asked.
“Sure.”
So, here is Clay’s first literary effort, written a sentence at a time, with breaks in between to wander through the house and into the backyard. (Hey, Hemingway wrote standing up, too.) Full disclosure: he did get a little assist with the “Once upon a time” part to get things rolling. Read the rest of this entry »
Yo, Adrian
Posted by Larry Blumenthal in Communicating on October 25, 2010
We had been at the sprawling horse farm for about 45 minutes, when the owners popped the question.
Do you think Clay would like to ride one of the horses?
Clay had loved almost everything about his trip on this sunny fall day so far, but we weren’t sure how he would answer that. Read the rest of this entry »
Nature Boy
Posted by Larry Blumenthal in Communicating, Daily Life on October 4, 2010
Clay loves the nature center near our house, so when we discovered one a couple towns over a few weeks back we figured it was worth a visit.
The first stop on the trail was a blind for bird watching.
My wife and I sat on chairs looking out through a wall-length picture window while Clay explored the room. Illustrations of birds ran above the glass. After a bit, the little guy joined us.
“What are your favorite birds?” my wife typed on the keyboard Clay uses to communicate. Read the rest of this entry »
A Clay Storm
Posted by Larry Blumenthal in Daily Life on September 17, 2010
Got caught in a perfect Clay storm yesterday afternoon. Here is what happened:
I take a shower around 4 p.m. (A busy day)
Head to the kitchen to get started on dinner. While I chop zucchini and peppers to roast on the barbecue, Clay alternates between scarfing the vegetables out of the bowl and diddling around with the sealed bottle of marinade.
Vegetables chopped, I pull off the tight seal on the top of the marinade, not realizing that Clay has managed to unscrew the top almost completely. The key word there is “almost.”
I shake the marinade vigorously to mix the oil with the other ingredients. Read the rest of this entry »
Diving Butterfly
Posted by Larry Blumenthal in Communicating on September 13, 2010
The night before we met with Clay’s “team” at school last week, my wife told me a story. A story I hadn’t heard before. It explained how—after years of silence from the little guy—we wound up at our kitchen table preparing for a meeting to integrate a computer keyboard into his high school classroom.
A year ago, we didn’t know if Clay would be able to type. We weren’t completely sure if he could read. We certainly didn’t know he could do addition, subtraction and multiplication in his head. He hadn’t used speech to communicate in five years. I had my darker moments, but I don’t think my wife ever stopped believing that underneath Clay’s often distracted and hyperactive exterior lived a boy who was listening, learning and longing to do more with his life than he had thus far. She had spent a weekend at Syracuse University learning about typing with support. She read herself to sleep at night with books on the key techniques and stories of people with autism who had broken through the silence.
We had talked about the possibility of Clay learning to type, but hadn’t taken concrete action to get it started. Read the rest of this entry »
Life With Clay 
