***Off topic warning***Feel Free to Skip***
Thank you for your kind words, calichicken. I read JaJeanpierre's post about her experiences and the first thing I thought was how much I'd love to sit down with her over a cup of coffee and just visit.
We started working with Katie when she was 13 months old. We knew something was wrong and that she seemed to be delayed, but experts tend to delay diagnoses (I hate that word when it's related to a little one) until they are older. We got lucky and found Children's Resource Center in Lovell, Wyoming and dived in. Some of the things they worry about didn't seem like that big a deal to me. Eye contact, for instance. I'm 64 and I find it hard to look into someone's eyes when I'm speaking to them. I stuttered badly as a child and my stepdad told me once that what I had to say was important to him but he didn't want me to ever feel uncomfortable talking to him because of the difficulty I had getting a point across. He suggested, when I had something really important I wanted to share, that I write it down. He promised if I wrote it, he would read it. I did - and he did. The stuttering made me avoid eye contact because I didn't want to see the frustration on the faces of the people I was trying to talk to. Katie's therapists had all kinds of ideas about how to get her to make that all important eye contact. None of them were working. I was her day care provider while her folks worked, so I had her most of the day. One day we were playing with her Dora the Explorer Colorforms and I had an idea. I stuck a small Dora figure on my glasses and when she wanted something I gently suggested that she "ask Dora". It worked. Granted she was actually looking at the Dora on my glasses and not into my eyes but it was close enough. Now CRC uses that method with the other kids they work with.
It's sometimes very hard to "deal with" these special kids unless you can love them enough to be willing to look at the world the way they see it and adapt. Then you can gradually morph that into what's more socially accepted. It's never as easy as that sounds unless you know how much potential is inside that little head. Katie is an artist and she's fantastic. I have 2 pieces of art she's done that are framed in my living room. They are of places that she loves - Artist's Point in Yellowstone was one she did when she was 4 years old and it was completely from her memory of going with me and Grampa....she had no photo in front of her when she painted it. The second is Grand Teton National Park done more recently and again it was strictly from memory.
Since I first started posting about Katie's involvement with our chickens so many great people with special needs kids have shared their journeys. Granted it temporarily hijacks a thread but we get back to chickens sooner or later.
In Katie's case she is such an integral part of our chicken raising that we almost can't talk about one without the other creeping in. So my apologies to those who might be irritated with Katie this and Katie that....but as long as I have chickens in the backyard and Katie and Kendra across the street (Kendra is 3 and has Spina Bifida) the conversations will always be blended.
