Susan Senator

Nat is home. I just got the weekly update from his teacher and I learned that his school is making a prom for the high school age kids there! They are even going to get a tuxedo store to come to the school and fit the guys. The guys can pick out their own colors. There are girls at the school, too, so I guess they will all be getting dresses. Nat’s teacher Terese is so excited that she is going to chaperone; she said, “It gives me an excuse to buy a new dress!” But she added that, “This is something we have been trying to do for two years!” It takes Nat’s school a very long time to do anything that is off the well-worn ABA path. They are always mindful of safety issues, and that makes them very conservative with trying new things.

But lately this is changing, for the better. They now have a basketball team (the one Nat is on); they had an all-school rally to celebrate the four basketball champs (Nat and the other three); they have a new building mainly for job-training. The kids go on picnics and into the community, even to the mall to pick out their own iPod shuffles (courtesy of the Parent Advisory Council). Plus, the teachers stay far longer than they used to. I am very happy with that place.

We had his IEP meeting last week, in fact, and that room was full! Probably fifteen people around the table, because there are Residence staff there to make goals for Nat while he’s at The House. The House and the school are pretty well synced up, so now we have a real shot at enabling Nat to generalize skills he has learned in the school. That was the primary reason for having him live there, after all.

Everyone around that table was enthusiastic and full of ideas. The IEP is very comprehensive: pages and pages of goals, covering all aspects of Nat’s needs, from vocational experiences like how you enter your workplace (greet people, punch your time clock, look for your work load, using the bathroom) to self-care at home (making his own lunch everyday, making a shopping list, using the shopping list, laundry) to practical math (estimating what is “some” and “enough” money for something he wants to buy, waiting for change, and eventually, using an ATM machine).

I love those people. And they love Nat. And now, the next phase of his life begins, as his teacher creates a social story to teach him how to ask a girl for a dance and how to behave with her. If anyone can teach him that, Terese can.

My heart is in my throat. Once again, I learn that I should never let go of any dreams if I want them badly enough.