Friends

So many kids who have Agenesis of the Corpus
Callosum have difficulties to varying degrees
with friendship and socializing.

It was much easier for me to include Matthew
in social groups in the community and in the
school when he was younger. However, when a
child begins to get older in years but lags
behind developmentally it becomes more
difficult to find places to include your
child for socializing.

When Matthew was much younger and entering
school I made sure that he was mainstreamed
50% of his day for the social benefits it
would provide because Matthew is very social
and loves to be around kids. He learns much
from watching other kids play.

I also took Matthew to a community music
class when he was about 4 or 5 even though
the class was for much younger kids. It
worked nicely.

However, as a child moves out of the grade
school years and becomes a teenager (but still
plays like a grade school child) it is a
struggle (and sometimes heartbreaking) to
know how and where to include your child
in activities so they will be around
other kids who are doing things that are
interesting to your child.

I have cried a few tears over this topic
before and I also went over a teacher's
head at school and helped Matthew be able to
go to a mainstream music class when he was
in junior high school.

I have been told by a community music class
that they felt that music therapy would be
a good solution for Matthew to have music.
Another teary-eyed moment with the feeling
of being turned away from something that
Matthew would enjoy before he was even allowed
to experience it and once again being put into
isolation away from typically developing kids.
Not to say anything bad about music therapy.
I think it's wonderful and we take Matthew to
music therapy twice a month but we have yet
to find a music therapist in our area who has
a group music therapy class.

Unfortunately, we live in a world that needs
to learn how to better include and welcome
with open arms people who are different.
With more inclusion comes more acceptance
and understanding by society, I believe.

Well, last night we had one of those moments
that every parent wants for their child who
doesn't have any friends.

Matthew's dad and I took him out to ride
his bike in the neighborhood after dinner.
It was a beautiful, sunny evening and
Matthew was happily riding along pedaling
his trike when one of the neighbor boys
(who is much younger) came riding up on
his own bike.

The neighbor boy spent the whole time
riding bikes with Matthew and talking to
Matthew and us. The little boy is 7 years
old. He was making Matthew laugh saying
all the silly things that Matthew likes
about monkeys and then acting like a monkey
complete with monkey sounds. It was
adorable.

Because we don't have sidewalks in our
neighborhood we ride bikes along the road.
We live on a dead-end street that is not
busy. While riding along we saw a hotdog
laying in the road and started laughing.
The neighbor boy rode his bike over the
hotdog and squished it. It was very funny
and became a game. Matthew tried to ride
over it with his trike but his tires missed
it so the neighbor boy took another turn
on his bike aiming at the hotdog with his
tires and once again smashed the hotdog.

I am very thankful that the neighbor boy
spent time riding bikes with Matthew last
night. It is a night that put a smile on
my face and still makes me smile today. :)