Josey

I know I just thanked her for helping me, but I had to post this too.

Josey is my amazingly sweet girl.  When going to the junior high, she was all excited to get to do partners club which is a group where students with and without disabilities socialize together.   I asked her, "Don't you get enough autism at home?"  She looked at me like I had 3 heads.  In Josey world, there is no "inclusion" because exclusion never occurs to her.

My favorite Sam and Josey story happened when they were still itty bitty.  Sam had that OCD thing where he could not tolerate the credits on movies.  Back then, he was a little more "physical" in his requests.  He had pushed Josey several times that day alone.  She was much smaller, so I really had to keep an eye on them.  Josey was watching a show.  Apparently she had taken all the bullying she was going to from Sam that morning.  When he moved toward the T.V. to turn it off, she flew across the room, pummeled him in the chest, sent him flying and stood with her hands on her hips while she yelled, "Sammy! You NOT turn off  my T.V. show!"  He has done whatever she tells him ever since.

Sam had a project due today.  It was a poster presentation on an element from the periodic table.  It was actually kind of labor intensive.  Josey was a huge help.  She got him to work for almost an hour.  Sam was very excited to take the poster to school.  His teacher sent home a note saying that Sam was really proud of himself after he gave the entire presentation.  That is kind of amazing for a nonverbal kid with autism who use to hate being around people.

Thank you Josey for helping Sam with his project.