Cassie (Cathy) Page Two

Except when someone is directly distracting her, Cassie spends almost all her time dropping toys over and over into her lap, sometimes rocking back and forth. If she doesn't happen to have something to drop, she just stares into space. I've bought her every toy and item I thought might possibly interest her, all these years, without much success. Her favorite things are toddler rhythm instruments, and hand bells. She will try to make sounds with these at times, in time with music I play.

Only in the past few years have I discovered videos that caught her interest. First it was Raffi, then BabySongs. Now Baby Mozart. I've been overcome with excitement, because now I am able to appeal to her mind in a way I could not before. She won't watch cartoons, or anything that has a story, because she can't understand stories. But here are smiling little faces, and quick bright toys in motion, and Raffi singing as though to her. These things she will watch.

Cassie is a very passive person, for the most part. She waits for everything to be given. She does not indicate hunger, if a meal is late. She does not indicate when her diaper is messy. If the sun goes down while she is alone in a room, she does not appear to notice. I will find her in the dark, and when I turn on the light, all she does is blink.

Cassie likes being outside on our farm. She is interested in the chickens, and ducks, and will watch them with a smile on her face. She likes cats too. She can say "kitty", and "doggie". When she sits on the deck, and our peacocks walk past her, she sometimes says "bird", with a smile on her face!

Cassie understands "I love you", because she will smile at me, or at least look at me when I say it. She understands "come have a bath", "get in the tub", "come eat", "get in the car", and a few other things.

A New Awareness

I never expected Cassie to surprise me, but she has. Just in the past two years, Cassie has demonstrated an ability to reason that I never expected to see. It has been great fun to see. At times, on quiet days, she will leave her regular "dropping things" play, and come into the living room when her dad and I are on our computers, writing, and open the sliding door to go out on the deck. We always used to prevent her from going out when it was freezing outside, unless she was dressed for it. But I decided it wouldn't hurt her to find out what it felt like. Lo and behold, when she goes outside and there's snow on the ground, she will sit down for about one second on the deck, where she always sits in the summer, then get up, and come right back inside! She's done it only twice. It was fun to watch her experience the cold, figure out what to do about it, and then come back in, solving the problem. It's a pleasure to see her thinking!

And again, with my purchase of a video called "Winged Migration", Cassie has surprised me! These skies filled with birds and their wild, insistant cries has drawn her attention! She looks up again and again, saying "bird!" as she watches. In this case, she is more interested than Caressa is. It is fascinating to me, watching my two girls - two sisters - so different from each other, and yet labeled the same. "Profound Retardation." A label that needs so much clarification. Perhaps children with this label are even MORE different from each other than children with the label "normal."

� Rosemary Gwaltney December, 2003 - June, 2004