Rosie finally got to suit up today. She was the last to get in but she laughed so loud you could hear her all over the lagoon. It was a nervous laugh as she was pushed out into the lagoon by a Squirt who was anxious to get back to Misty. You could hear Rosie saying, "Oh my word, they go so fast." While Jesse was on the other side going, "Go faster Fiji! Go Faster!" Oh to be so young, carefree and fearless.
Justin on the other hand couldn't shake his fears. Today was his last chance to swim independently with the dolphins. He was courageous and did a beautiful belly swim with Squirt but couldn't do it without having the therapist hand on him. A belly swim is when the dolphin flips over on to its back and swims up under the child so that child is actually laying on the belly of the dolphin. The child grabs hold of the pectal fins and then together the dolphin propels them through the water. It is pretty to watch as the dolphin nestles the child in between their fins and holds them gently against their pink bellies. By the way, did you know that dolphins have belly buttons? They do! And they love to have them tickled.
Fiji continued his antics with Jesse taking him for a couple of "wild" rides. He even responded to Jesse giving him hand commands today. The trainers use sign language to instruct the dolphins. The dolphins will turn on their side to see the trainer and watch their hands and with a flip and a turn of the trainer wrist the dolphins will dive down, turn around and jump through the air returning afterwards for a reward of a a couple of dead fish and a little praise. If we could only get our kids to respond that way to a couple of fish!! The dolphins loved to be praised and clapped for. They will click, chatter and flip their heads around as you talk to them and tell them what a wonderful job they are doing. If you forget to praise them they will go off and sulk a little while like kids. Its a good reminder how much our kids need us to praise them!
Tomorrow will be our last day here. Gene and I will get to swim with the kids and the dolphins then. It is hard to believe it almost over; yet, we are exhausted. We have hardly a moments rest since getting here. They have tried to give us as much information as possible in such a short time. Right now Gene and I are a little in sensory overload we have been given so many resources and tools to help the kids. It is going to take us a week or two to process it all and then it will take time to experiment with the many different techniques and things that we have learned to figure out what is the best choice for our kids.
Today in particular we learned so many helpful things. Practical tools for everyday living with special needs children, like weighted vests and blankets to help retrain a child's brain so that they understand they are sitting, laying or standing in a place. They explained to us today that children on the Autism Spectrum struggle with sensory developmental issues. Their brains can not identify and categorize different sensory stimuli. For instance, when you and I sit down our brains register a certain amount of pressure in our little petunias as Misty calls our derrière. Children with Autism do not register the pressure in their brain so they struggle with the perception of sitting and understanding what sitting still means. So you have to retrain or reteach the brain. To do that they use a weighted vest and/or blanket. It puts extra pressure on the child's body hopefully allowing the child to experience the sensation of sitting still. It was unbelieveable to watch Justin. He was jumping to and fro unable to sit still for more than 20 or 30 seconds when they put on this weighted vest and blanket on him. Justin sat perfectly still for ten to fifteen minutes without fidgeting or getting up one single time. I can't wait to but one of those. There were a lot of other things too like therabands and swings, and pattern lights. It was way cool.
Well my brain has been drained for today and I am beginning to experience fits of uncontrollable psychotic episodes of laughter as I think about swiming in the pool with the kids tomorrow so I think I better hit the hay and get some sleep.
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