Lately I have noticed Ella’s body rocking. She just sits here and rocks back and forth while watching tv.
This may sound horrible, but my heart sinks every time I see her do it.
It scares me, I feel it is a symptom of something much bigger, or rather, things to come. When I lightly touch her, she immediately stops. She doesn’t acknowledge that I touched her, she just stops. She has her weighted blanket on her lap and still, the rocking ensues.
So, what do I do? Sit on her to stop her from rocking? Hold her arms while she flaps them when she is excited? Or do I just let Ella be Ella (a wonderful, beautiful child with some sensory difficulties)?
I choose to let Ella be Ella, for the time being.
However, in the back of my mind I wonder if letting Ella be Ella isn’t such a good idea. I wonder when the day will come that a child makes fun of her for “arm flapping” when she is excited. Will a little piece of her spirit die? I hope I will have helped her be a stronger person than this. I hope I instill in her that she is who she is and that is wonderful, hand flapping and all. Could I have helped her by stopping it now? Should I tell her that there are other ways to convey excitement?
Maybe being different creates greatness. Maybe it is the diversity and the ability to cope with it that creates fascinating, wonderful people.
I know some very wonderful people and none of them are “normal”. After all, what is normal? Who woke up one day and deemed themselves “normal” and someone else “abonormal”?
I refuse to accept or acknowledge normal. Everyone has their idiosyncrasies. It is those differences and quirks that make us all so special.
People suspected to have some for of Autism or sensory issue: …continue reading
