The Star of the Blog

My sonshine started tennis yesterday...and did quite well. Many Aspie's suffer from low muscle tone, coordination difficulties and sensory problems that can make sports a non option in their lives. Over the course of Brennan's life, he tried soccer...in which he loved being the goalie, as long as goalies could sit down, play with dandelions, and yell hi mom every once in a while. He tried baseball...he actually did pretty well here, but he hated it and every game and practice was a fight to get him to go and once we got there to get him to stay. He tried basketball too and made great strides in his game. The problem with basketball is, the kids were VERY competitive and VERY relentless when letting a less than athletic kid try to learn the game. He had a high school kid for an assistant coach who took him under his wing and actually taught him how to shoot. That was nice. The coach however, lost interest in him after about 4 nanoseconds. Too bad coaches can't have some lessons in accepting all children at all levels. (Sorry to generalize here...Brennan had a great baseball coach, who whenever I see him, I still admire all that he did for my son and how he accepted him as he was.) Then he tried swimming...and experienced a lot of success here, in fact he completed all levels, is a great swimmer and will get his life guarding certificate next summer. He tires quickly while swimming, but participates without too much complaining and underneath, I think he likes it. We are so fortunate that our park district has extensive services for kids with special needs. Finally tennis...he started tennis last year for the first time. Ummmm....did I mention that Aspie's often have severe fears....like that of rain, wind, and thunderstorms? Brennan has a terrible fear of storms. In comes tennis...it is THE most fair weather sport of em all...if there's a chance of rain...they say no lessons! Ahhhhhhh....this is the sport for my boy! He is learning all of the appropriate 'tennis moves' and is doing quite well really. He currently has a collapsed arch in one of his feet that causes him a lot of pain when he's running on it...looking for a surgical fix for that one soon, however...currently he loves tennis!




I as the mama love to see him outside, chatting happily with new found friends and not experiencing any discouragement. That is a joy of summer.