I traveled from Virginia to Seattle this past week for the National Association of School Psychologists conference. Here are a couple of highlights from the week:
Playing tourist: The Chihuly Garden and Glass museum was inspiring. It felt like walking through a Dr. Seuss book--bright colors, odd shapes, mixing nature with the imagined. Everyone in the museum seemed to be smiling out of sheer delight. I'm putting Mr. Chihuly in the same category as Walt Disney. Both dream and make those dreams into reality.
Being academic: At the conference I attended a session on identifying students with Autism Spectrum Disorder. Autism is a complex disorder to identify, and instead of studying a list of behaviors that lead to a diagnosis, we were given the kinds of questions to ask to actually get to know the individual. After all, giving someone a label/category/diagnosis is simple. Actually identifying ways to help the individual is much more complicated and much more helpful.
Life lessons: On the flight home I sat next to a man who talked to himself. Not only talked to himself, but had some interesting conversations with himself. He sang, put on hand sanitizer multiple times, and didn't want to touch anyone (difficult in a plane). When I asked him what his name was he half-looked at me nervously and said, "I don't speak English." I asked if he spoke French and he said, "Sometimes." I asked him if he was traveling alone. He looked completely amused and said, "It's really funny that you just said that." He then pointed out that there were people all over the plane. How silly of me not to have noticed! At one point he went back to the airplane lavatory and the man who was sharing our row leaned over and said in a somewhat demeaning way, "This guy is weird." I felt the need to defend him and said something like, "Yes, but he seems kind-hearted." My row neighbor was not convinced. I'm grateful for the opportunity I have had to study disabilities. Instead of seeing disabilities, I'm beginning to see simple differences. Understanding the differences make it much easier to love, and isn't loving the whole point?
Till next time!
