When you have a child with special needs you want nothing more than to make them feel included and as “normal” as possible. As a parent and their advocate you push to ensure you do whatever you can to make that happen.
Over the weekend, we started back at the Little Gym. Carter had previously been going over the summer and absolutely loved it. Recently, he had been asking to go back and we remembered Jackson standing outside the door begging to be part of the class. So, we signed up both kiddos this time.
Carter was the only guy in his class, which he didn’t mind. He also is the best in his class, which makes this ex-gymnast mama super proud! He loves being with the other kids and is always so proud of his accomplishments, as he should be. As soon as we got there, Jackson was ready to go too! He stood outside of the door with his hand on the handle a few times, let out some shrieks of excitement and flashed big, cheesy grins.
Finally, it was class time. This was the biggest class by far that we have seen in our time there, so of course my mind went to:
- “Will he be ok with this many people?”
- “If there is an activity on the big red mat will he run into the other kids, because he just isn’t aware of his surroundings or space?”
- “How will I react if someone says anything about my kid acting different, if he does?”
Well, let me tell you that HE WAS INCREDIBLE!!!! The amount of people was more of an issue for me than Jackson. During his warm-up time he did the exercises like walking in a circle holding my hand, running in a circle and jumping (bending his knees and popping up, so cute!). The next part of class is “exploring”, where the kids have free range of the gym and can check out whatever they want. His first event was to check out the parallette bars that are down on the floor. He loved holding on to them and walking up the mat and then going back down. His next adventure took us to the high beam. He showed no fear as he climbed up the steps and started walking across it…holding my hand, of course. Then, we moved on to the rocking mat. This requires you to use your core muscles to walk as it rocks up and down based on the shifting of your weight. I was nervous about this one more than I was the beam, but he stood up on it and walked back and forth like he had been doing it for years!
One of the things associated with Fragile X is poor muscle tone, so getting Jackson in these classes to help with that, but to also make him feel included in fun things that his friends and big brother does is just another step in our journey to help this guy live his best life! Looking forward to our next class this weekend!
XOXO
Our Fragile Xperience 