Elizabeth has had a good month. A few twists and turns but a good month.
We heard from the nursing home about her job in the dietary department.
For those who don’t know, Elizabeth has been asking to work more and since she loves working with food and the “elderlies” as she calls them, we applied for a job in a local nursing home.
All was going well with her training until they had run into some severe staff shortages that made the shadowing/training undoable.
At least for the time being.
Now the issue that has arisen is that the actual work in the dietary area requires precise measurements of items as well as many steps to complete one task.
And there are at least 12 on the menu list at one time for one meal and there are 3 meals to prep.
So with Elizabeth’s dyspraxia, she would be quite able to do the preparations but it would take time and the breaking down of the task and then simply working on it for a bit. Then repeat. But without the staffing, the training SHE needs would not be possible. And we actually supplied the job coach for the first few sessions.
I know that this whole scene was overwhelming to Elizabeth because when the nursing home called and said they would call her to talk about training again in March, Elizabeth’s first response was that she didn’t want to try this again because it made her anxious. And when I asked more questions, she shared that she felt it was too much for her “all at once”
So we will be talking with them soon about all of this. I think the one big takeaway from all of this is that what works for Elizabeth WORKS for Elizabeth. And that learning this and implementing this makes all the difference between successes and failures.
Even at 25 years old and probably forever. That is not a bad thing just a fact.
Now to the good part.
As you may know, Elizabeth works at a local catering place 2-3 times a week typically in the mornings. She is completely at home at this place. Well….we got a call from the owner of the place who said she thinks that Elizabeth can handle and do well working some evening parties and would she like to try some and she how she feels.
Elizabeth was a big solid YES to this and so she did.
Her first was last week and her second foray into the party world was last night. When I went to get her last night, she was excited to tell me about the new jobs she did and how much fun it was. She was proud of herself and so are we.
I love how easy it can be when people “get” her and work with her to learn and achieve. It just reaffirms that she can do anything she wants to. With the correct supports.
For her vision therapy update, we have been doing therapy for a full year and a month and have a beautiful friend ( former teacher) who is working with her to read twice a week. So we talked to the doctor and confirmed we can take a bit of a break from therapy while doing the reading to see just what happens. Will the good changes stay? Will they taper off? We will be keeping a watch on all these things and then either staying our new course or heading back to vision therapy.
Another big thing is that we are working on independence and safety. We added some apps to her phone to help with this and she is beyond excited to not have to hear me talk about certain things anymore. I know this because she told me!
Anyway, it is was a month of a few twists and turns but the pride she had last night in herself makes the month begin on a real high note.
I wish everyone a peaceful month!
Michele Gianetti author of Elizabeth Believes in Herself