Yoga Class

I don’t remember how old Aiden was when I started taking him to yoga class but I do remember that he was very verbally limited.  He was also just constantly bouncing off the walls.  He was so difficult to contain so I thought maybe some yoga would help him to calm down a little.  I took him to TriBalance yoga studio in Schaumburg.  It does not specialize in special needs children or adults, but it was the only yoga studio that I was familiar with.  After meeting with the kid’s instructor she suggested that we start Aiden off with personal one on one classes. I agreed with her because I knew there was just no way he would be able to focus in a room full of kids. We did several personal sessions at her house once a week and once in awhile he would be cooperative but mostly, no.  We eventually stopped going because it was costing us a lot and he wasn’t really getting anywhere. This was another one of those things that I had to just try out in order to find out how he’d do.  Fast forward a few years later and Aiden now knows several yoga positions and he’s even asked me if he could do a couple of my yoga videos on his own.  It was really cute.  He enjoys moving his body, but as with most of us, he can get frustrated when it starts to become more challenging.  That won’t stop him though.

Swim Class - Dundee Township Rec Center

Oh swim class! This was challenging.  Aiden has a love/hate relationship with swimming.  He likes the water, he wants to go in the water, but he’s scared of the water.  It’s pretty much always been like this with him.  I really wanted to get him into a swim class so that he could enjoy playing in the water and because it’s an important skill to have.  Aiden had good days and bad days in this class.  He took this class at the Dundee Township rec center I think because I hadn’t yet signed him up at NISRA. This class was not “special needs” guided so he was just out there winging it with neurotypicals, my brave boy!  Looking back now, I think this may have gone better had he been in a NISRA swim class. The little that he did learn in that class, I don’t think he really retained and that’s probably just for lack of practice since swimming is something we rarely ever do.  I am determined to get him back in the water though.  Just with more appropriate teachers this time.

Shopping

In the beginning, Aiden would freak out everywhere we went.  Crying, screaming, meltdowns, it was bad.  Really bad.  I always tried to save shopping trips for later in the evening or on the weekends when I could go by myself but sometimes it was unavoidable and I’d have to take him with me.  In those early days, packing snacks was a major help, along with going when the stores were least busy, taking a list of what I needed, even going over the layout of the store in my mind so that I could grab things in order according to the most efficient route. This was serious business.  At around 3 - 4 years old I made a picture book for him.  Just a cheapy little $1.00 photo album that I put pictures in with labels that I had taken from around the house.  Like a picture of his sippy cup, jacket, my car, stores, shopping carts, etc.  Once we’d get in the car I’d show him the picture of the store and the shopping cart and tell him that’s where we were going and when we’d arrive at the store I would show him the pictures again.  It took a little while but he picked up on it.  Didn’t mean he liked it, but now it wasn’t such a shocking experience for him anymore.  When he knew what was coming next it would help to alleviate some fear. Thankfully things are very different now.  Aiden is older now, and he has come a really long way in so many respects.  Shopping with him now is more like shopping with any neurotypical child.  He still doesn’t enjoy it, and I still have to prepare him for wherever we are going before we leave the house, but now I can just verbally tell him and he’s usually pretty agreeable. He always has something rolling around in that beautiful little head of his that keeps him entertained for awhile.  

Pump It Up

Aiden loved this place! We haven’t been there in a pretty long time now but I’m sure he’d still love it today too.  We used to take him here semi-often and we even had 2 of his birthday parties here.  This kid loves to jump and climb and run so this place suits him very well.  The bounce houses are big so even though he’s getting bigger and bigger he still fits in there well.  I think I may get him back into bi-weekly visits here because he’s now become a little too immersed in his Chromebook.  Gotta get that exercise in!