Sean: A Wonder Unfolding

The biggest wonder in my life the last few years has been the blossoming of our autistic son, Sean. At 23, though he can say a few words, he cannot converse orally, and until four years ago we had no idea of the depth and breadth of his understanding. In 2008 he began to communicate with a very special teacher in Austin named Soma. His communication with my husband and me has improved, but he still saves most of his thunder for his sessions with Soma. He communicates by laboriously pointing to letters on a printed letter board.

Last Saturday Soma presented a lesson on the fundamentals of trigonometry, how it is the study of triangles and is used by surveyors and architects, etc. Sean learned to distinguish equilateral, isoceles and scalene triangles, how to determine the centroid of a triangle and the circumcenter of a circle. Then he learned Pythagoras’s proof (which I didn’t write down, but it has something to do with a hypotenuse). At the end of the lesson, Sean wrote IT IS A BIG WONDER. I LIKE THIS SORT OF MATH. All this from a kid who never learned more than first grade math in school.

Sean began attending the Lifelong Learning Program at North Central Texas College on Tuesday, so I asked him to tell Soma where he went last week. He spelled EL PASO. Very funny! His lame excuse for a joke. Finally he spelled COMMUNITY COLLEGE. Then he asked to write a story, to wit:

CLOUDS TURNED GRAY AND THE DAY TURNED DARK. EVEN BIRDS STOPPED CALLING. BUT THERE WAS NO TIME TO WATCH THE CLOUDS FOR BILL. HE HAD TO RUSH TO THE SIGHT [sic] OF THE HELICOPER CRASH. HE ROUTED HIS TEAM AND HURRIED AWAY IN THE FIRE TRUCK. THE CHOPPER LEFT ONLY SMOKING PIECES. BUT THEY WILL TRY THEIR BEST TO FIND A LIVE PERSON AT LEAST. BILL HAD TO CALL HIS BOSS. “WE FOUND A BIG BOX FILLED WITH MAPS. I BELIEVE IT IS PENTAGON MAPS. NO SURVIVORS.”

IT WAS A MONTH LATER DNA REPORTS WERE REVEALED. IT WAS THAT OF A WORLD WAR II VETERAN. THERE WAS A SEARCH AT HIS HOME IN KANSAS. STRANGE SYMBOLS WERE FOUND IN HIS OFFICE. BILL HEARD NO MORE FROM THE FBI. A FIRE FIGHTER WAS SUPPOSED TO DO HIS JOB AND FBI AGENTS THEIRS.

Communicating is very tiring for Sean, and by the end of this story, he was ready to leave. To fill up the last few minutes of their time, Soma asked him what he would do tomorrow. I CAN WALK. WALKING MAKES ME CALM. Then he asked Soma, WILL RON PAUL WIN? Soma said she didn’t know, did Sean like Ron Paul? YES (He doesn’t get that from his parents!) Soma said, “Who is your next favorite? SANTORUM. Sean then asked Soma if he could vote in the upcoming election and made it very clear that he wants to (he wrote I THINK I NEED TO DO SOMETHING), so sometime soon I’m going look into getting him registered.

The best thing about this week for me, though, was when my big, strapping boy who seldom shows any emotion or affection, said in his robotic monotone, “I love you,” then gave me a awkward hug. I can recall only two other times in his life that he’s told me he loves me.

A fitting end to a really good week.