Tuesday, April 02, 2013

My favorite assignments are special education. I have had a few in the past two weeks, in a high school and elementary schools. One memorable child was KC. He was small for his age if he was in Kindergarten, though I do not know which grade he was in. One of the aides said he was one of the four or five most intelligent in the class. Women would exclaim how cute he was. His skin the color of a dried walnut, his hair was a sandy brown and he was always smiling. His favorite position on the playground was a yoga position I cannot recall the name of but was an inverted cobra position; thus the crown of his head was on the ground and so he had an upside down view of the world. He would hold it for quite a long time and he did not hold it in the recollected pose of a yogi. He was quite enjoying it in his usual disposition of a perpetual joie de vivre. He must have had a strong neck, for he would rock slightly back and forth on the crown of his head.

I have noticed two autistic boys who liked to walk on the balls of their feet. They were of two different ages and at different schools, and so evidently had no influence on each other. I have never observed normal children walking like this before.

Two autistic girls, also of different ages and different schools had the same expression of what I can only express as being in awe at gazing into my eyes. It was as if they were captured by the gaze and could not put their attention into anything else to the extent of not being able to do anything, concentrate on doing some assigned task set by the teacher. It was as if they were in a constant state of bemusement.

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