Today, we did a lesson on the origin of the Star Spangled Banner. It was a shorter lesson, but I was able to incorporate new learning and pulled out some prior working knowledge from Ryan. It is up to me to get creative with the lessons in order to keep his attention. So things like “we are talking about Baltimore. Do you know what state Baltimore is in?” MARYLAND. “And the flag that flew was 42 feet by 30 feet. If a taller man is around 6 feet tall, how many men can lay down head to toe to make the 42 feet?” 7. “How about the 30 feet?” 5.
Ryan enjoyed the lesson and he stated that SO KNOW THAT MY FAVORITE SONG IS THE STAR SPANGLED BANNER. “Do you know all of the words?” YES. “Is it a song that you sing in your head?” YES. “Why is it your favorite song?” BECAUSE IT IS ABOUT FREEDOM, REMEMBERING NOT TO FORGET ABOUT IT.”
I told Ryan about the reader submitted questions and he wanted to try and answer a few.
Our first question came from Debra. How should someone who has not met many autistic people, respectfully approach them in a non threatening way – in a way that would show them you want to be their friend?
SO I WOULD SAY NOT TO LINGER TOO LONG AND TO QUIETLY ASK YOUR PLEASING QUESTIONS. Anything else? SO NOT MUCH ELSE BESIDES BEING KIND. “When you say quietly ask, does that mean to actually speak quietly?” SO YES NOT TOO LOUDLY. “Why is that?” BECAUSE I AM SOUND SENSITIVE. “Both Grace and I speak loudly often, does it bother you?” YES IT BOTHERS ME. “Okay! I will try and have us both speak more quietly.”
The next question came from Sarah, who is a former occupational therapist of Ryan’s from school: Ryan, sometimes people (grown-ups too) have to do things they don’t want to do. How can we make it easier for students to do work that isn’t fun?
MAKE IT MORE FUN BY CHALLENGING US WITH MORE MEANINGFUL WORK. “Ryan, I think that what Sarah means is that sometimes people have to do things like chores, practice handwriting, take standardized tests, do repetitive math problems. Sometimes the work just has to be done. What would you say to that?” SO LET STUDENTS KNOW ABOUT THE PURPOSE OF THE WORK.
My plan is to try and tackle a few reader questions each time for upcoming posts. I also plan to give you more details about Ryan’s journey with RPM and how far he has come. The spelling out of his thoughts did not happened over night and there was no miracle involved. It was a lot of hard work on Ryan’s part and a lot of perseverance on my part. More to come on that later…