She can only move her right arm enough to barely reach the joystick that moves her wheelchair. The only other part of her body over which she has conscious control is her head. She cannot speak, so head movement is a large part of how she communicates. She controls a computer cursor with her head, and she can nod her head "yes" and shake it "no." She also uses eye gaze: either on her own by looking at something she want to draw your attention to, or to answer a choice given her. (Hold out right hand)"Do you want to have yogurt," (Hold out left hand) "or applesauce?"-- she will look at the hand representing her choice.
We were at a pet store and I was the one pushing her chair. While we were in the bird area, she looked toward the small animals and nodded. Forcefully. "You want to see the small animals?" Another nod. But once there, I stopped in front of the rabbits and she kept looking to the hamsters, so I brought her there and she was happy. Since I split my time with all the students and she has an aide with her all day, I don't know her "language" as well as her aide does. I felt a silly kind of pride for figuring out that she wanted to look at the hamsters, and then felt silly for thinking it was such a big deal-- she did make it pretty obvious, after all.
Sometimes she amazes me with her ability to communicate. She might start to cry, and after a short conversation with her 1-1 aide, we know that she is sad because her grandparents are going to Florida and so she won't be able to spend the weekend with them as she usually does. And we know this without a word spoken by her.
She is such a happy person, and yet I have a hard time putting myself in her shoes and imagining myself being happy. Not being able to speak exactly what I want without laboriously spelling it out on a computer that might not be handy, not being able to feed myself, or go to the bathroom on my own, or shower, having to depend on others for everything. That's really the key for me, having to depending on others' moods, their strength, their understanding, their willingness to keep trying to understand. And I wonder sometimes if I am doing right by her in the areas she depends on me.
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2 comments:
Welcome back.
For one heart stopping second I thought you were talking about Candycanegirl after her accident.
It's a moving post. It's wonderful that she has people to depend on in the first place.
[rereads first line of post] That is pretty scary sounding in light of her recent accident.
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