Thursday, March 6, 2014

Acceptance.

As some of you may know by now, my eldest daughter is Autistic. I used to be scared for her, but now I don't think I really have to be. You see, I took both of my daughters to a Lego Club at our local library earlier this month. I was a bit apprehensive to do this thinking that the other kids would stare and not accept Sierra. Boy was I wrong!

Every child is given a green Lego board to make their creations on using the communal pile of Legos consisting of several thousand I'm sure.  Well right away the youngest wanted me to help her build something, so I dove in and started to pull out bricks for her to use. Sierra didn't want any help because she was fascinated by all of the Lego wheels because every time she saw one she would exclaim "Look Daddy! Wheels!" and promptly retrieve said wheel and place it on her board.

Of course I praise the child for pointing them out and begin to prompt her to make something, to which she refused. Not wanting to squash her creativity, I let her go. Much to my surprise, after about the 50th time of Sierra exclaiming "Wheels!" a little guy next to me handed me a wheel and said, "Here is a wheel for her." Stunned for a second, I thanked him and offered him a brick or two for his creation and placed the wheel on Sierra's board.

Over the period of the next 40 minutes or so of the club, all of the children where pointing out wheels to Sierra or just simply putting them on her board! It began to look like a miniature used tire lot on Sierra's board. When it was all said and done, Sierra had about 50 or so wheels and tires on her board. Then all the children were given little slips of paper to right down their favorite creations number on and turn it in to the group leader.

Needless to say neither of my daughters won, but a lesson was learned, if by no one else but me. Even though the other children knew Sierra wasn't "typical" it did not matter, the only thing that matter was they all had fun and they helped her to achieve that because they accepted her for who and what she is not what she was. They accepted her as another kid who wanted to play with Legos!

Why can't we all accept one another as just another kid wanting to play with Legos? Maybe the world would be a bit nicer to live in.  We are going back to Lego Club next month, wanna join us?

As always, may the Force be with you all.

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