A Different Kind of Normal, Part 2
Written By Charlotte Meryman
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The Olympian
To raise a child with special needs in our interventionist era is to sign up for a schedule as packed as that of an Olympic athlete in training — with just as many handlers. Every single day Jimmy is working long and hard with someone: Amy Farmer; his preschool teachers; his physical, occupational, and speech therapists; his gymnastics instructor; and, of course, his parents.
The overarching challenge in this never-ending story of therapy sessions is to doggedly, fixedly strengthen Jimmy's low muscle tone and ease his troubles with what's known as motor planning. That's the process by which the brain takes in information and tells the body what to do: put on clothes, wash hands, climb, catch. Jimmy must train for months, for years, to master such tasks, breaking them down into their smallest steps and practicing them over and over until his muscles memorize the movement.
So he gamely bounces, balances, and tumbles at gymnastics. He reaches, throws, draws, and builds at physical and occupational therapy. His dad throws in plenty of roughhousing. All of this activity is crucial for his coordination, but the Foards have another glittering prize in mind too. Michelle read somewhere that "movement creates speech." And, like many parents of children with special needs, she'll try anything from the "can't hurt, might help" category.
