Once Upon A Jason! – April 2000

Jason is two years old and almost every day we bring Jason and his brother Jonathan to preschool. They each give us a kiss and a hug and run off to play with their friends on the playground. Now it is just the normal course of business, but a year ago that was not so. My wife and I had our apprehensions when we enrolled Jason in the same preschool as Jonathan. He was so small, not walking and had, of course, never been to preschool. We worried that he would not be able to assimilate into the classroom and do the things the other children do. Boy, were we wrong. What we had forgotten, or did not realize, is that Jason had no idea that he was any different than anyone else. It did not bother him that the other children walked and he crawled. When it is time to go outside everyone gets their coats out of their cubbies, walks/crawls to the door and lines up. Jason learned, as all the children did, which cubbie was his and just crawled with this coat instead of walking. When it was time for music class, the children line up against the wall and walk in a line to the music room. It was a little more challenging for Jason since the rule is that the children walk in a single file line with their finger on the wall. No problem for Jason, he just crawled with this finger on the wall. That is no simple feat!! (no pun intended) Now that he uses a walker, he gets to be line leader because he is a bit of a wild driver. It is wonderful to see. Jason’s teachers expect no less from him than they do from his classmates and Jason expects no less of himself. When we go down the hallways of school now Jason waves to his friends and teachers and says "hi" (one of his new words); we get to the playground and Jonathan’s friends all wave and call him "Jonathan’s little brother" and they all go off and play together. It is almost as if he says, "Don’t worry Mommy and Daddy, I can do it". And, you know what? He can.