Courage

As I was sitting at my computer this morning trying to decide what to blog about today my eye fell on my desk calendar and the word courage jumped out at me. Courage is such a powerful and meaningful word. There are so many things that we do in life that take courage. Some of us have greater stores of courage than others, but we can all find courage when it really counts.

I had the opportunity this week to talk to a mother of a child that is going to be evaluated for autism. This mother said to me she didn’t really care what the label was or if he had autism her biggest concern is that he have friends and social abilities. She is willing to do what it takes to help her son be successful. I saw a lot of courage in this mom to take what life had given her and make the decision to look at the positives her son has and used these to improve the negatives. I have great hope that this child will have a great quality of life.

Courage is what leads us to expand our horizons and give ourselves new and better experiences. Without courage we would all be stuck in a rut.

That is why I love RDI® so much it forces all of us to use our courage everyday. By us I mean not only consultants and parents, but our children on the spectrum as well. I think our children with autism must have great stores of courage just waiting to be tapped into. By using guided participation we ask our children to be courageous, but also provide the support they need to be competent and successful which leads them to be courageous again the next time we ask. How great is that!

So here is to all of you who are using your courage daily to face challenges or try new things.

Talk to you soon,
Erin