Today, my speech intern and I were brave and decided to help out by chaperoning a group of 3rd to 5th grade boys with autism for a museum field trip. It was an excellent day, with so much engagement and initiation of communication and shared wonder and smiles and laughs. I wish I could take a day to spend with every child on my caseload this way. It was such a wonderful chance to see the sparkle in the boys' eyes as they shared joint attention about a lemur, a bear, a butterfly, or (everyone's favorite) a computerized camera to see the animals more closely.At one point, one of my students who isn't normally all that talkative unless we ask him to speak, sat down next to my speech intern on the bench at the butterfly house and said, "Wonderful," as he looked at all the butterflies flying overhead. It was magical, that moment, and I let myself pause to appreciate it just for a second.
And then, of course, I had to scramble to keep up with a fast-moving third grader.
But there were many more beautiful little moments of shared awe today. Hooray for field trips.
Wonderful, indeed.
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| a bear off in the distance |
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| a ring tailed lemur--so cute! |
What wonderful thing did you experience today? Did you let yourself "be in the moment" to take it all in?
Let's see.......my wonderful thing that I experienced today was the same field trip!!! I had a great time talking to you and your young man! He's funny!
ReplyDeleteYes, that bus-ride chat WAS fun! And I loved the interaction between you two...maybe you guys share a similar sense of humor! :)
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