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Contents:
Wrestling with an Exceptional Life By Marco R. della Cava – USA Today Under bright neon lights in a college workout room, two wrestlers are locked in a dance of grimaces and grunts. From a distance, all appears normal – one teen on top while his opponent braces himself on all fours. But look closer. The limbs of the prone wrestler seem to vanish into the mat itself. “Time!” yells Chris McDaniel, letting go of his opponent. Kyle Maynard rolls over on this back, exhausted. His arms and legs go limp, which is when you notice that Maynard has no arms beyond two rounded stumps and no legs apart from a pair of short and appendages with malformed feet. He lives to battle and win; no big deal when your entire life has been one. For most of us, Kyle’s world would be an intimidating and disconcerting place but to Kyle it’s just normal. Maynard is so passionately normal - so eager to try anything, so ready to poke fun at himself – that the congenital amputation that left him limbless at birth quickly recedes into the background. “I’m just average,” says Kyle as he hops into his wheelchair to his freshman dorm at University of Georgia. But Kyle is far from average. This year he received a variety of acknowledgements inspired by his 35-16 wrestling record as a high school senior including ESPN’s ESPY Award for best athlete with a disability. His handsome good looks found him photographed for Vanity Fair and for Abercrombie and Fitch’s Stars on the Rise catalog. Maynard, who had a 3.7 GPA in high school is now a public speaking major. He has a busy schedule addressing students from Midwestern high schoolers to South Florida seniors. Maynard was born on March 24, 1986, the first child to Scott and Anita Maynard of Fort Wayne, IN. “We focused on his blond-hair and blue eyes. We knew he had physical disabilities but were always impressed with his mental focus and drive.” Watching other toddlers grip crayons between thumb and fingers, Kyle quickly taught himself to clutch objects between his two shortened but highly sensitive biceps – the same technique he uses today to handle French fries, open medicine and manipulate his cell phone. Want more? He can type fifty words a minute. The years ticked by and equally striking daughters, Amber, Lindsay and MacKenzie appeared on the scene. Kyle was ever the big brother, both doting and annoying. Kyle’s passion for competition was encouraged by both his parents. Having great difficulty participating on the middle school football team, Scott, a demanding ex-college wrestler steered his son toward wrestling. “In the end, it was perfect because his opponents couldn’t run from him.” Scott responds, “I don’t know where I’d be without wrestling. I love to compete. It’s such a huge part of who I am.” Many opponents found they couldn’t match Kyle’s speed or strength-to-weight ratio. Kyle won most of his high school senior year matches and was ranked 12th in his weight class at the National High School Wrestling Championships. “Of course we’re proud of him for that,” Anita says. “But we’re just proud of him period – of the fact that he taught himself to eat on his own as a kid and that he’s totally self-sufficient at college. He might inspire others now, but he’s inspired us his whole life.” What Lekotek Means to Our Family Michael and I have two sons—Tyler, age 13, and Drew, age 10. I cannot remember when our lives did not include Lekotek as we were fortunate to learn about Lekotek when Tyler was 3. Learning has never come easy for Tyler. When he was young and lacked fine motor skills and verbal abilities, Lekotek provided wonderful new ways to learn. Every session, every day and every communication with Lekotek has been helpful and positive. While Tyler came into the world needing lots of special love and time, Drew came barreling into the world, big and strong and quick to learn. Lekotek helped Drew develop computer skills. But more importantly, Lekotek helped him learn that all children are different making it easier for him to understand his brother’s special needs. Drew continues to be very disappointed if, for some reason, he cannot come to one of our monthly sessions with Helene. In addition to monthly play sessions, computer Club has been a huge confidence booster for Tyler. It gives him a special outing each month. Tyler insisted on walking into Lekotek on his own to attend the first Club. This was a huge milestone for all of us. Selfishly, over the years I have enjoyed talking with the staff. Their wealth of knowledge and resources make it possible for Tyler to be successful. It does take a village to raise a child, especially a child with special needs. We are grateful to have Lekotek as part of our “village”. Mark Your Calendars for the Lekotek Run, September 10th, 2005 Plan to participate in Lekotek’s 13th annual 4 mile and 1 mile race/walk to be held at the Concourse Office Park off of I-285 and Peachtree Dunwoody Rd. Enjoy fun activities for the whole family - fire engines, cartoon characters and a finish line breakfast. All participants will receive long sleeve cotton race shirts and all children will receive medals. The 4 mile race begins at 8am and the 1 mile run begins at 9am. Country Club of the South Selects Lekotek to Benefit from Fundraising Efforts Country
Club of the South Selects Lekotek to Benefit from Fundraising Efforts Playdates for Young Children with Autism and Other Disabilities by Nancy Rosenberg,
M.S. and Gusty Lee Boulware, Ph.D Playdates are a regular part of life for many preschoolers. Opportunities to play together with peers help develop friendships and social skills. Playdates also serve a social function for parents, providing opportunities to socialize, develop friendships and support each other. When a child with disabilities cannot participate in typical playdates, the child and parent can become increasingly isolated. Lack of social interaction and appropriate play skills are core symptoms of many developmental disabilities, most notably autism. Research has shown that working on these weaknesses in the context of natural environments is the best way to promote the generalization of these skills. Teaching a child with disabilities in the context of a playdate with a typically developing child is likely to provide an ideal environment for teaching critical social skills. For all of these reasons, ensuring that a child with disabilities is able to participate in playdates with other children is highly desirable. But simply bringing children with and without disabilities together without preparation will result in failure. The authors of this article discuss suggestions for a successful play group. First these playdates differ from typical playdates in that an adult is actively involved in facilitating the play. The adult facilitator can be a parent, a child care provider, early intervention specialist or educator. In addition the authors discuss practical aspects of the playdate - who makes the ideal playmate and how long the playdate should last. Ideally, the playmate for a child with disabilities is one from the child’s “community:” a neighborhood friend, a child from preschool or daycare or even a sibling. A ripple effect among other peers frequently occurs when they observe the playmate successfully interacting with the “focus” child. Optimally, a playmate for a child with disabilities is outgoing and likes to please adults. Even more important, is that the child chosen is genuinely motivated to play with the child with special needs. In determining how long a playdate should be, it is important to balance the needs of both the focus child and typical peer. Sometimes, the ideal time for the child with a disability may be very short. A half hour of intense interaction may be all that child can enjoy. Such a short playdate may be upsetting to the typical child. So reach a balance between the two and build in breaks where the children have “free time”. It is also important to be thoughtful in choosing where the children will play together. For children with autism, areas that are cluttered or provide too much open space may be distracting. Choose a play area that provides enough space for the children to move about comfortably, but doesn’t encourage wandering. If a large room is all that is available, create a play nook by defining boundaries with bookshelves or furniture. Choose activities that you know the child with special needs is interested in. If a child has a strong interest in a particular character try to incorporate it into the play activity. For example, Tony, a four-year old with autism, loves the movie Toy Story. His playmate, Jeff enjoys Play-Doh. Using Toy Story figurines while playing with Play-Doh creates an activity that is motivating for both boys. Successful playdates for children with disabilities can increase their quality of life as well as the whole family’s. Lekotek of Georgia’s inclusion specialist frequently incorporates some of these techniques when helping schools include children with special needs into typical classes. If you would like to learn more about the Inclusion Project please contact Lisa Nevitt at Lekotek. Software of the Month: Meet LekoBear With a grant from the Charter Autism Foundation, Lekotek leaders, Peggy McWilliams, Lisa Nevitt and Kristen Davis have spent the last year creating innovative software designed to help children with disabilities master cause and effect, mouse skills and basic concepts. As Lekotek continues to provide services to an increasing number of Spanish speaking families, several programs have been written in Spanish. For children with special needs, commercially available software can be difficult to navigate and often distracting. Staff written software is designed to diminish these distractions, allowing the child to focus on the specific goal of the software. In addition, all software is compatible with the mouse, touch window, intellikeys and single switches. One favorite with our kids is the Leko-Bear series. The five software programs in this series include: LekoBear’s Play Session, LekoBear Goes to School, LekoBear Gets In Trouble, Let’s Dress LekoBear and The Adventures of LekoBear. LekoBear is a small soft stuffed animal who lives at Lekotek. Children can actually hold LekoBear while playing on the computer. LekoBear software allows the child to make choices for LekoBear. With LekoBear’s Play Session, the child chooses whether LekoBear plays with the train, tracker, computer, slide, dollhouse or bird seed. Using other programs in the series, children have fun choosing LekoBear’s school activities, clothing and adventures. And we hope parents won’t mind when LekoBear gets in trouble for writing on the wall. All of these programs have been added to Lekotek of Georgia’s product catalog and are available to teachers, therapists and families.
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