Magic

I met a 4th grader at work last week. It was nothing unusual. The kid is having trouble with his behavior so they called me in. Basically, every time he gets frustrated, he has a meltdown, resulting in yelling, crawling under tables, and/or throwing himself on the ground. He is a cutie with some of the most beautiful eyes I have ever seen. He and I talked, I did a classroom observation, and I talked to his teacher. The kid said without reservation that he just can't take it when he is upset and he agreed to work with me on that. I didn't think much else of it until I called his mom on Friday. She said he was diagnosed with severe autism when he was 3. I couldn't believe it. Severe autism??? Like the can't-relate-to-others-flap-your-arms-don't-talk kind of autism? Yup. She even brought documentation of this fact to the kid's IEP meeting today. I asked her what kind of magic they have at her house because the kid appears to be your typical,average,everyday 4th grader until he has a meltdown. She calls him her miracle baby. When I looked through the records though at the amount of therapy this kid's mom set up for him, I tend to think that hard work and available resources are to thank for this magic. Either way, the kid is incredible and so is his mom. We had a great IEP meeting today to set up a program for him that will help him manage his frustration better and the best part is, I get to be a part of it! On days like this, I love my job!