Young teacher Jamie: my former self.<\/p><\/div>\n

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Yes, we also played with Nerf guns…it was a matter of necessity.<\/p><\/div>\n

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So we played twenty questions. Aristotle was a scientist at heart. He loved his categories. He loved order. That\u2019s all you need for such a game. The master deducer always wins. Find the most logical player in the room and he or she will triumph. We split into teams and whichever team won got a free late pass on homework. It was cutthroat.<\/p>\n

I was not as good then as I am now. I\u2019ve had more practice. Communicating with Charlie is an endless game of twenty questions. He can answer \u201cyeah\u201d, \u201cu-huh\u201d and sign for \u201cmore\u201d as affirmatives. He can say \u201cuh-uh\u201d, shake his head, or sign \u201call done\u201d for the negative. He says other words too: “mama\u201d, \u201cgo\u201d, \u201ccar\u201d but unless the particular scenario has me driving him somewhere, we are back to the game at hand.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s how a typical afternoon pans out:<\/p>\n

Me: \u201cCharlie are you pointing to the car?\u201d<\/p>\n

Charlie: Shakes his head no.<\/p>\n

Me: \u201cThe piano toy?\u201d<\/p>\n

Charlie: \u201cUh-uh\u201d<\/p>\n

Me: \u201cThe apple?\u201d<\/p>\n

Charlie: \u201cYeah\u201d in a voice like he won the lottery. The apple is a VTech toy that has all letters of the alphabet and quizzes him on sounds and words. The kid\u2019s understanding is on par with his peers (he knows every number, letter, word, color, etc). It\u2019s getting it out of his brain and into the world where we hit the wall.<\/p>\n

Dinner time is fun:<\/p>\n

Me: \u201cCharlie, do you want macaroni and cheese?\u201d<\/p>\n

Charlie: Vigorous shaking of the head for no.<\/p>\n

Me: \u201cRavioli?\u201d<\/p>\n

Charlie: Waving his hands in front of his face like I\u2019m trying to poison him.<\/p>\n

Me (resignedly): \u201cPeanut butter?\u201d<\/p>\n

Charlie: \u201cYeah\u201d with an inflection at the end like I\u2019ve just offered him the world. He\u2019s not subtle. And his meals often include peanut butter and\/or yogurt so that\u2019s a game of twenty questions I can win in one.<\/p>\n

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Cora pretending to feed Charlie. Sweet and drooly.<\/p><\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

We do not know precisely why his language skills are so limited other than it\u2019s often an attribute of cerebral palsy. But we\u2019re creating a workaround. He uses an iPad to touch pictures of the things he wants. His speech therapist at school films herself with him singing and saying words so we can play it back to him. We are also meeting with specialists at the children\u2019s hospital in a month to test out other alternative communication devices. We\u2019re working on it. And in the meantime, I\u2019ll keep playing the game and I\u2019ll keep winning because it\u2019s not hard to read Charlie once you know the tells. Sometimes I wish I could create a user\u2019s manual for him and pass it out like a religious tract for those who need or want to be in the know. On the other hand, that reduces the kid to an operational device, a script to be read rather than to interact with. Artistotle would chide, would recategorize. Charlie belongs with the rest of the homo sapiens. He belongs in the rational world.<\/p>\n

Save<\/span><\/p>\n

Save<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"