When I first conceived the idea of The Chocolate Spectrum, I
really didn’t know exactly what that would entail in terms of Blake’s
involvement. I knew he liked making chocolate-that’s it. First of all, I didn’t
know what was involved for me let alone him. I mean a running a business, even
a small one, requires many different tasks. But as the weeks and months have
passed, and now that Blake is out of school, and
The Chocolate Spectrum is
going to be his main activity for his life, I realized that it can’t just be
about making chocolate. I now understand that Blake needs, and is capable of
getting into other areas of the business.
As I have previously posted, he is able to help with the
packaging. He ties the ribbons on the boxes of candy. He has always been OCD
when it comes to precision of tying the bows on his shoelaces, so I wasn’t
worried about the ribbons on the boxes. He likes the bows to be the same size. So
job #2 has been packaging.
This week, I introduced him to job #3: mailing packages. In
this task, he is essential. First of all, I only have two hands, and a weak
back. So, it goes without saying that I need a strong person to help carry all
those boxes into the post office. That’s a no brainer. I guess I could get a
little trolley, but who needs that when you have a strapping young fellow? So
Blake gladly carried in all the boxes for me this week. What came next was a
surprise. We brought the boxes up to the self-service kiosk for printing out
shipping labels and purchasing the stamps. And then it came to me. It’s a
touchscreen! Blake can do touchscreen. He has had a touchscreen device of one
kind or another since he was eight years old. This is old school to him. So,
one by one, I helped him to enter the information on the screen. It’s just a
matter of following the prompts: Push “mailing package.” Touch “no” since we
are not shipping anything hazardous. Enter the zipcode. After three packages, I
didn’t even have to tell him each one to push. Great!! A new task and something
he likes and can do with a little assistance.
There’s a moral to this story. One that is very important
for everyone who has a child or works with a child who has special needs to
know. All those tasks that we laboriously worked on for years with Blake in
speech and occupational therapy and in school are finally starting to have more
meaning for him. People ask, what is the point of these exercises and all the
training? Well, I can tell them both from the point of being a speech
therapist, and also as a mom of an adult with autism. Functional activities are
where it is at with all of these people. Spend the time making sure your child
is involved in tasks that will help him or her in their adult life as well as
their childhood. Because I believe that every person can be purposeful. Every
person.
