Monday, March 05, 2007

A Message from a Parent

I have been receiving many wonderful emails over the past weeks and months, including the following extremely touching note which I reproduce below (with permission):

"This is not an inquiry, just a thank you. I am the mother of 2 boys with aspergers. My 5 year old has had a very difficult time learning the concept of numbers. I saw you on the tv, and to tell you the truth, at that time I didn't even remember your name. I did however, remember your connection with colors textures and numbers. Inspired by this, I made my son some flash cards that same day, assigning colors to each number with the corresponding dots one to ten under each. He said, "no mommy,this one is softer, pointing to the 3". I redid the flash cards this time letting him color and decorate them. Almost immediately he began adding them - only as colors! Blue (2) and soft green (3) makes sunny warm yellow (5). To anyone else, this would make no sense. Only then did I realize he knew them all along! I was the one who had to learn how to understand him! Listening to his older brother's heart beat one day he had said, "listen mommy, daniel is blue!" I had been so confused until we played with the flash cards. His brother's heartbeat had 2 pulses! Thank you so much for sharing your story! I plan on reading your book to glean more ideas on how to help my beautiful boys! Again, Thank you, Stacey Clark"