Matty

I originally planned on blogging during my five weeks in India. Mostly so my mom has something she can go to to read about my day and let her know that I’m still alive.  Also, to write down my thoughts and keep track of awesome occurrences so I don’t forget them.   Now I’m thinking I will start earlier then my trip because I have a few exciting things going on and it would be nice to record them. 

This weekend I started working with a 13 year old boy named Matty who is diagnosed with severe autism. I found this job through the New Paltz off campus work bulletin board. I am interested in getting my masters in special education and thought it would be great experience. Yesterday I trained with Matty and his mom for 3 hours. She showed me around their house, we walked to the halfway point on Walkway Over the Hudson, and showed me some parks and trails I can bring Matty to. Matty is nonverbal. He knows a few  signs of american sign language like “more” and “please”. I was nervous about the language barrier but thought I can try to understand what he’s trying to express through body language.

Today I picked Matty up at his house at 10am. I was a little nervous, but more excited. I brought him back to New Paltz (about a 20min drive) and we walked on the rail trail for an hour. I talked to Matty as if he understood everything I was saying. I wonder how much he actually understood. I think autism is a fascinating disorder. While we were walking I talked to him about how I am really bad at the guitar. I told him I want to learn how to play the drums because I think it’s great and a fun to play instrument. After I said this he grabbed my arm and started tapping on it. I’m still not sure if this was a coincidence or if he was emulating playing the drums on my arm. 

There was another moment when I thought he could understand what I was saying. I told him that I want to be an art teacher one day and asked him if he enjoyed making art. I talked about how much I love art and told him that one day in the near future I would bring over all of my supplies and we can play with paint, charcoal, pastels and markers. I told him I would lay out paper and let him do whatever he wants with the supplies. He started jumping up and down, clapping, and making a happy screaming noise. He either completely understood what I was saying, or the excitement in my voice got him excited. I hope he understood me. Either way, I can’t wait to make art with Matty.