Brady's Page

What’s Best for Brady?

What is best for Brady?  It is a question I ask myself every day.  As
much as I know all his therapies are good for him, I can’t help but
wonder sometimes, wouldn’t he rather be outside playing or splashing
around at the pool?  When is there time left for a visit to the zoo or
the play place at the mall?  When can we fit in a play date or a trip
back home to visit with family?  It is becoming more and more
important to me that we make sure we fit these things back into our
lives.

Every hour Brady spends in his therapy is well spent, I have no doubt
about that.  He really seems to enjoy when his 2 ABA therapists work
with him, some programs more than others of course.  But I can’t
help but wonder at times, should I push him to be something he’s not
yet or let him be who he is?  If he makes the progress we want for him
(maybe even recovers), then absolutely, it was all worth the time,
money and energy we put into it every day.  But if he isn’t able to
gain the play skills, the expressive and receptive language, the
waving/clapping/pointing, etc that we are all working so hard
for…should we have put him through all of this?  Should we have kept
him in our basement 4-5 hours a day, with neighbors wondering why we
don’t let our beautiful little boy outside to play?  When a waiver
hasn’t kicked in and we haven’t won the lottery yet, should we have
cancelled our vacation?  Is it right to take away our hope of playing
on the beach with our boys to pay for another month of therapy?  I go
through this analysis at least once a week in my head…usually when
Brady has had a “bad day”.

I am finding a few little ways to even it out.  There are some
additional ways Brady can explore, socialize and learn.  We are
finally back in swim class, something we started when he was 6 months
old, then had neglected since his diagnosis…not because we didn’t
think he could do that anymore, but because there were so many other
ways we needed to spend our time and money.  He is loving his new swim
class and making some progress there, which reassures me it is the
right place for us to spend our time and money.  This fall we will do
swim class with both Brady and Ty!  We recently tried a class at the
Little Gym as well.  I won’t lie and say it was the best 45 minutes of
my life, trying to pull a squirming 2-year-old with autism back to
circle time, listening to all the other children tell their name and
watching as they followed the directions of the instructor.  But,
there were moments I couldn’t wipe the smile off Brady’s face, or
mine.  He loves to do front rolls down the incline mat and back flips
over my body.  So, for those moments and the hope for one day making
it to circle time, we enrolled in the summer course.

I think we just have to find that happy medium that works for Brady
and our family.  I must say the best therapy for me, the mom of the
autism, has been the other families we have emailed, spoken to and met
the last couple weeks.  How comforting it is to see we aren’t alone,
to hear what is working for other children, to make new friends to
replace some of the old ones that don’t understand our new life.
These new friends, my family and prayer are what can comfort me when
nothing else can.  I just need to make an extra effort to get Brady
all the therapy hours we can afford, and still have time/energy/money
left for “fun time”.  Whether it is a trip to Pump It Up, a new
swingset, a playdate or finally making it back down to COSI…we will
make it all happen for Brady.  Vacations will have to wait, but as for
the rest of the package…we’ll flip over the couch to find loose coins
to pay for it…and stay up till 2am doing laundry to make the time for
it…that is what is best for Brady.

This was very well written. You will find that happy medium. I know Brady will be a success story, and your efforts will pay off.

Jerod & Sarah,

My husband and I were watching Channel 4 last night and saw your story on Autism and your mention of Brady’s page.  So I decided to take a look at it today.

We volunteer with an organization called TAASC (The Adaptive Adventure Sports Coalition).  We are a volunteer, non-profit organization that provides recreational activities for adults and children with both physical and developmental challenges.  The people who started TAASC all worked for Rec Unlimited at one time and wanted to provide year round activities that would also involve families/friends in the activities. 

In the winter we teach skiing.  In the summer we have a kayaking program run out of a property we rent from the City Parks department on the Scioto River not far from the Zoo in Shawnee Hills.  We have bicycle and sailing programs and have a water ski camp in the summer.  This year we are going to combine our water ski camp with the Wounded Warrior program for veterans of the Iraq war. 

My reason for sending this comment is to provide you information about the programs and give you some alternatives for activies for Brady. TAASC has worked with many Autistic children and start them sometimes as early at 3 or so.  TAASC continues to be a well kept secret (unfortunately) and I thought your family and Brady might enjoy some of the activities we provide.  We seem to spread the word through a grass-roots word of mouth initiative.  Please go to the web site http://www.taasc.org and take a look at our programs.  I hope that you will decide to check it out and will ultimately benefit from the activity and interaction. 
You have a wonderful family.