I blog about my daughter with autism, about her life, about her art, about funny stuff she does, about good times and bad.
I thought I might start sharing some of my entries here, as an effort to raise autism awareness. Often diaries on this site about autism seem to center around vaccine issues, which is a shame, if you ask me.
This latest entry is about an activity I've wanted to try with Ellie for some time now, but never could find quite the right venue.
Visit her website to read more about Ellie, autism, or to see some of her artwork.
www.elliecastellanos.com
The kid's school has this great program called "Siblings of Children with Disabilities" where they meet every other week with other kids in the school who have special brothers and sisters and they get to talk about how rough it is, and how great it is. The kids try so hard to be good and helpful that sometimes they forget to say out loud that Ellie can be a pain in the tushie!
On the off weeks the parents meet and talk about pretty much the same things, with the staff that teach our kids, so we know these people and it's really a nice time. At the last meeting I was talking about how guilty I feel that I'm not enrolling Ellie in more out of school activities. She really hates going to them, and she loves doing her own thing at home, and she works so hard at school, but I know I still should try harder to encourage her to live in the land that exists outside her head.
So after this meeting, her teacher got a fire in her belly and emailed us abut thirty links to activities that I might not have thought of or tried yet. One of those links was for a yoga therapist, and I jumped all over it.
I've noticed just from trying to get her to do little poses or gentle stretches that Ellie laughs when she stretches or gets into a pose, even a simple one. With all her sensory issues, I imagine yoga must feel great to her, even better than it does for the rest of us.
So I took her on down the road a little and met this lovely woman who specializes in doing yoga with disabled kids. She let Ellie play around for a while, and Ellie was NOT happy when she said it was time to do yoga.
The instructor asked me to stay outside the door so they could develop their own relationship, so I stood out there almost-but-not-quite going in about ten times. Ellie was howling and yelling out yoga things she had heard me say before in an angry tone (AND STRETCH! AND STRETCH! UP, DOWN! UP, DOWN! OH, GREAT JOB! WOW, YOU'RE SOOOOO GOOD! YOGA! YOGA! I LOOOOOVE YOGA!") but I could hear the instructor, gently and quietly trying different things until she discovered that Ellie liked her counting, and they counted for about ten minutes.
I had Nikos with me and he kept looking at me, "Mama, go get her! Come on! This isn't going to work!"
I told him to have a little faith and be patient.
Lo and behold, by the end of the session, Ellie was completely calm, and even did a few poses. The session ended on a serious high note, but the instructor didn't look very sure of herself as she came out. I assured her that she had done a great job, and that next week was going to be better.
This week's session was yesterday, and a different Ellie walked happily into that yoga room and giggled through her yoga session. They both came out of the room with giant grins on their faces.
"I can't stop smiling!" remarked the instructor.
"I know," I said, "Happy Ellie has that affect on people."
I asked Ellie if she liked yoga as she was getting her socks on. "Yoga," Ellie said. (Translation: yes) I asked her if she would like to come back next week. "Next week," she whispered.