Technology Help

As the last days of summer are still trying to remain, Fall is desperately trying to take hold.  We can feel it in the mornings, but only then.  By early afternoon the heat has returned and we are feeling the lasting summer still.  Still, Fall is on the way no matter what the calendar says and strictly speaking, the calendar truly remains in control.  And with October’s arrival comes another year of blogging for the cause, reminding the world that there is a small community out there that needs to recognized and cherished for the light they bring.  After a year of year of silence, all I can hope is that the things I have to say can resonate in a new way, with new pictures through words of all the emotional ups and downs (no pun intended) with raising three kids in this day and age.  Our parents had it rough in their own way in trying to raise their kids in a world that was transitioning from one age to another.  I was busy learning how to program in ASCII when I was in Elementary school and we thought we were the pathfinders for a new age….turns out we were already behind though.  Brain’s much keener than mine were learning how to reduce the size of those computers until they sit in our hands and rest on the my husband’s wrist, ready to do an EKG when his heart acts up or will let 911 and then me know that he has had a hard fall and needs to be transported to hospital.  The former helps him keep track of his heart’s electrical issues; the latter, may it never be needed.  And though it might have been rough for them because raising kids is never easy… my mother will look at me and tell me that it is much more difficult today than it was yesterday.  Between the electronics, the schools, the politics, the uncertainties….it is more and more difficult to sift through the values that we grew up with and find ways to incorporate and enforce them into our kids lives today.  When right and wrong are so often portrayed as misdirection it often leaves those quizzical looks on our kids faces as they try to determine the truth behind the smoke and mirrors. 

Bradley is not lost in all this.  We are fully aware that technology has saved his life; and that on his road ahead, there is no doubt that technology will continue to be in his life…saving it, making it better.  He is learning to use an iPad for speech and as that continues to open his world, he is finding a voice, albeit small, but truly mighty.  Navigating his way through three menus to tell me he wants milk is exciting because he is navigating through three menus and finding a way to clearly tell someone he wants milk – not everyone will understand his best approximation in sound or sign…but we get all three. It’s the first brick, and as we fill in the mortar to prepare for another brick, we keep building.  We aren’t sure what the plans are: it could be a humble little house on the end of the street or a massive cathedral – either way it will be the plan intended for him and for us to be a part of.  And not unlike a cathedral, it will be a labor of love and a lifetime in the making.

This year Bradley is in the 4^th grade.  I pick him up twice a week in order to take him to Therapy, which he started outside of school in February.  A school setting can only provide so much, so when we learned of a new place that was available and getting really great reviews from other parents we know, we talked to Bradley’s doctor and they referred him over.  We started as quickly as possible and jumped into three days a week.  Looking back it was one of our wiser decisions.  Bradley will be ten in January, so when he turned nine last January, we could definitely feel the weight of that magic number milestone.  His evaluator at therapy talked about too, which made me realize we were on the same page, and that was a relief in that I knew we had brought him to where he needed to be.  For some kids with Down syndrome, life comes along just like for everyone else and for some it comes just a bit slower.  For our kiddo with so many medical complications, things have stalled and then started and then stalled out after another medical need and so on and so on.  We went from thinking he would never leave us to learning more and thinking; Holy Smokes, our third chick probably will leave the nest and back to – hmmm… maybe he won’t be able to leave us.  Disconcerting for sure and can be a complete distraction from dealing with the present.  So we keep these things on the back burner and try to deal with the today instead.  Bradley has developed a bit slower than others like him, but he has also been enjoying a respite in health scares.  The epic part of him growing and thriving is the thriving part.  He is starting to make connections in his world and though they can be odd and frustrating to us – me, I can at least acknowledge that the connection has been made and chalk one up to winning a battle in a long war.  Perhaps him suddenly realizing that an egg doesn’t necessarily get cooked in the Instant Pot pan and will crush if squeezed too hard is not the kind of lesson that I had on tap for the day, but here’s the take away.  Bradley chose the egg carton from the fridge.  He knew the egg inside needed to go somewhere.  When he impatiently waited for me to get the right pan, he let me try to show him how to crack it and drop the egg from the shell.  In his enthusiasm, he learned that the egg is relatively fragile, especially once it has a crack.  He also learned that the egg itself makes a delightful mess when it hits the floor.  We both looked at the floor, Mom said “Whoops, not so hard next time.”  And as I cleaned it up, he went on to something else but did come back to eat half of the finished product once I got another egg safely in the pan and cooked.  No, it’s not perfect and yes, it can be super messy with the occasional naughty word slipping out…but it is life and it is learning and it is all part of the connections between ideas that we are trying to make and understand.  And I use “we” because Bradley needs to understand the connections as much as we need to understand the train of thought that takes him from one messy discovery to another.  And if that means we are doing the most random things at the most random times… well, that’s what keeps life interesting after all. 

Thanks for stopping by.  Have a wonderful day and see you tomorrow! 

31 For 21…Down Syndrome Awareness Month 2019!!