So the other day this week I had to work with a program to save some articles I had written. It was one where you can save them and then others can share your folder and edit them etc.

Now I KNOW how to do this as I had done it many time before.

But that was just it.

BEFORE!

So even though I KNEW how to do it, I had to ask my 15 year old son, Michael the steps to doing it again.

And as I suffered through the requisite comments about how cute it is that I am trying something new and how proud he is that I am not afraid to use the internet, he went over it all.

So after the teasing was done, Michael helped me learn the steps and I did it a couple of times while he stayed there just to be sure that I processed the steps to do it as well as making sure that the notes I took on how to do it worked. And yes, I got teased for writing it down as well.

This got me thinking about our special needs kids and their skills. I know that we have a list of things we are always working on with Elizabeth, either they are skills she knows or skills we are growing. But the list is always there.

When Elizabeth was young and REALLY struggling with her disorders and even attempting any skill, I know I wanted her to learn something and move to the next things because the list was so long. I also know that that thinking was both good and bad. Good because it gave us push to keep going and bad because the skills aren’t simply mastered for her, like a check list. They need attentions often to be current skills, we are never really done with them.

Kind of like me and my story above, the skills they have for anything, in my opinion, can grow rusty and even if they KNOW it, the rust kicked off of the skill for them to be successful again.

In other words, they need to go over the skill, practice it again and become fluid in it again.

I have noticed this for pretty much all things with Elizabeth in her life. Her dyspraxia and SPD ( Sensory Processing Disorder) have made learning new skills such hard work and have given her a great deal of anxiety in learning them and using the skills. She has been typing a lot, as that is, if we all remember, one of her self made goals but where does that leave her cursive signature and printing? Well?, not in a pretty place that much I will tell you.

So I chose to see these rusty skills as ones that need attention and rehearsal, ones that need to stay on the list of things to work on. And the big take away for me and hopefully for you, is that…

Really, it is okay.

It is okay to have to rehearse reading again or writing again or how to wipe the floor or, or , or.

Because the skills are there, learned but a bit tucked away and rusty.

Other typical kids may have different goals at the ages out children are, but I look at the hard work our kids put in to almost everything they do so if I need to de rust Elizabeth’s cursive signature, I will.

This is just something to encourage us all as we see the new school year in front of us and as we see the work our kids need to do.

I just kicked the rust off of my skills and that was okay.

Why not for them as well?

I wish everyone a peaceful week.

Michele Gianetti author of I Believe In You

Ok, so when COVID shut down the world in 2020, we found Elizabeth at home again.

Home:

From her college program

From her internships

From her job training

Home

But we took the lockdown and made a schedule to keep her busy, productive and occupied.( insert smile face here)

Time passed and we began to change things for her again. Sort of revamping the schedule and changing the goals to HER goals. Her special needs challenge any new skills. Her global Dyspraxia and Sensory Processing Disorder (SPD) make each day hard work. But,

We worked on many skills of life because we had the time to do it.

We worked on her art skills for the same reason.

I have to say that COVID was the chance to just BE with Elizabeth. Something that I know doesn’t happen alot as there is always something we need to do, should be doing, should be teaching, should be reinforcing, someplace we have to be, some therapist we need to see and on and on.

But I got the chance to just BE

And it was a gift.

We are now, what?, 18 months into this thing and I thought about that today as she and I were walking at 7:45 this morning. We must have walked more miles together in this time frame than in the entirety of her life.

And that too, has been a gift.

I am grateful for the person she is and the gentle ways she possesses even thought at times, she makes me feel more things than peace, like when she pretends not to know where something is just to let me know she didn’t want to get it for me in the first place.

Or when she says “SORRY” in a very sarcastic manner to let me know that she means anything besides the feeling of sorry.

Or when she absentmindedly answers “Yes, I understand!” over and over again as I talk letting me know she is totally not listening to me at all.

But the thing in all this is that we did work on skills, and kept them up as well as added new ones. And the world opened up for Elizabeth again.

And now her world is opening up more because she got hired officially by her second part time job! She has been doing her internship working with Gymsters, a physical fitness program for preschool and school aged children both special education and typical.

She loves it and now is officially working for them!

Proud?

You bet and so is she.

This week she started working with her first official day being Tuesday.

So she is working 4 days a week now. 2 days here and 2 at her catering job.

And I am happy to see her resume her life, in a new and improved way, that she left back in March of 2020.

Just wanted to share a bit of happy in a world that has so much going on.

I wish everyone a peaceful week and please wear a mask.

Michele Gianetti author of “Elizabeth Believes In Herself”