This is where I am heading with this. While walking I was texting and it says, "Don't text while walking." Has anyone died while walking and texting? Maybe? Why do they say that? They say it because texting is our way of life. Who makes a phone call anymore?
How did I discover Sam's talent in photography? It all had to do with my phone. All our phones have cameras and he was always stealing mine to take pictures. I am running around trying to leave the house yelling, "Where is my phone! Where is my phone!" Sam always had it. It drove me nuts.
Today, with all of the conference, speaker series and books I have read, I know that it was all non verbal communication. He was telling me that he wanted to take pictures. The photography started to teach Sam how to read. It all happened from technology.
The big question today is how to get Sam to write. Everything goes in a progression of events. Sam can now work his camera like the pros but he now needs help in learning how to edit. I am tired. Sam now knows how to read, he learned how to read by reading his comments on his page. He needs to learn how to write. I am tired.
Somewhere someone has got to pick up the ball. I am frantically trying to get my point across to someone. When Sam was two years old he would smash his crayons. I particularly remember this blue crayon. Blue is all I see when I think of Sam writing.
I also remember the screaming.
He would also write on the walls but every child does that.
I am lost, I am always lost. I have lost count of the restraints that have happened over writing. Fighting is what people see of me. No wonder I don't have any friends, right? That is what I have been told. I have to learn radical acceptance, right? That is what I have been told.
Everything changed March 14th 2014. That was his first restraint in his new school. He also says that the guy grabbed his shirt, twisted it and pushed him against the wall. A State investigation happened and the approximately 250 pound guy still works with my son. We were late today and it was that guy who met me in the office to pick up Sam. He was all smiles, I wasn't.
Sam is known as the kid who takes pictures. OK, correction, the community knows him as the kid who takes pictures. I don't know how the school sees him. "But we gave him a computer?" So, Sam can't spell. He can talk into a computer, he can start the word and have the computer finish it for him with the right program. Sam recognizes the words because he can read. If I thought he could be writing with a pen and paper I would be doing that. I try to get him to do things with writing but it is way beyond me. Again, I am tired. If I had a choice of Sam either knowing how to read or to write I choose reading. I believe I have made the right choice.
I wish I could say that I didn't just give Sam a camera. That is exactly what I did. What took the work was getting him to read. It is the same way for writing. Sam knows how to work a computer. He needs to learn how to work it for writing. That takes time, patience and somebody who knows what they are doing. It takes someone trained in Assistive Technology.
I will keep fighting.
*Find more of Sam's photos at https://www.facebook.com/SnapshotsBySamMaloney & http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TXhzf2Hxhqk
*The background of this blog was a picture that Sam took while looking for Salmon.
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