Writing with my left Hand

Try this little exercise. Write out Psalm 23 in under two minutes using your dominant hand (for me my right hand). Ready, set, go!

The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures; he leadeth me beside the still water. He restoreth my soul; he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name’s sake. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me. Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies; thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life; and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever.

Pretty easy, huh? Now take your non-dominant hand and try to write in the same amount of time (my left hand). Harder, right?

Now you know what it is like to have an autistic child.

Writing with my left hand is hard but not impossible. I can copy the passage but writing felt weird. I had to learn a whole new way to accomplish the task. I had all the tools, but I wasn’t comfortable using them. I had to pay more attention to things I took for granted. Every letter was a struggle. I had to work slower and couldn’t solve the problem using the methods I had learned in school. Sometimes, I would get frustrated and want to forget this new method and go back to how I was raised. Eventually, I grew comfortable using my left hand but then I would have to form a new word or a difficult letter. I learned that there is nothing wrong with using my left hand…it was just different. When I finished, I was a little proud of what I accomplished.

I will never be able to fully explain to someone the ups and downs of raising a child with autism. But write with your left hand for a while and you can get a small glimpse into my world.

Here is a blog entry for another parent who tries to explain what having an autistic child is like:
http://www.our-kids.org/Archives/Holland.html