How do you teach your child that doesn't understand something? This is the question that still has me perplexed. Anyone who knows Kezia knows she loves to run. She is never found just walking when she could be running. And she is extremely adventurous which has made my life a nightmare at times.
My million dollar question, also, has her teachers stumped. These are professionals that have been teaching school and deal with small developmentally delayed children all day. We have an IEP (Individual Education Plan) goal for Kezia to be aware and safe in her environment. But, just when we all think that she is starting to be safe she teaches us that is not so true.
The beautiful weather we have been having in this area has given rise to kids wanting to play outside. How do you tell kids no when you yourself want to be out in the beautiful spring, like weather? So, out we went yesterday after school. Kezia had followed her big brother around their boundaries. Kezia's is a lot smaller, but she rarely realizes this as she often exceeds those limitations. So, big brother returns little miss and off he goes again to play. Again she takes off, but this time she went too far. When he realized he couldn't catch her and needed help, he did the right thing and immediately came and got me. She had run a block and a half then proceed to go underneath the via duct where the trains go under (thank goodness there is a fence keeping people out of the rail yard). She then ran to the busiest road in our neighborhood where it is actually a numbered freeway. She was standing on the corner looking back and forth waiting for the cars to stop when a man and then a woman stopped to rescue her. Thank goodness for our earlier lesson. She had gone across our street and I told her that she had to stop and look both ways. Without me telling her that thirty minutes prior, she may have not stopped at the corner.
I wasn't far behind them. I was waiting at the intersection for the light to turn green when I noticed an ambulance coming in her direction. I had yet to locate her and my mind went to the worst possible scenario. I stopped breathing, my heart stopped beating, I just froze. The ambulance whizzed by and I felt myself breathe. The light turned green and I soon located my run-away. In this whole process the man who first stopped had called the police, so I waited until they came. The officer took my information, took the good Samaritans information and told me he would have to forward the information to DFS because it was one of the busiest intersections in the city. I called them this morning from the advice given to me by her teacher Angela, who has had to deal with the agency before. She told me to be proactive with them. The supervisor was very nice and said they might be out if the report got forwarded, but that this is a common problem from little one's in our community. They are kids and kids love to wander.
I am not the only one Kezia runs for. She has snuck out of her classroom where there are multiple adults and a bell on the door. She runs when we are at church. She runs in the grocery store. She runs everywhere. Kezia's attention span is increasing, but when she starts to get bored she wanders. When you go after her, she squeals and runs faster thinking it is a game of cat and mouse. She is the mouse and loves to be caught. This is cute when it doesn't involve her being put in danger.
I gave my Kezia the biggest hug. She gave me a hug. I put her in her car seat and tried not to cry because I had just had the worst scare of my entire life. I am so grateful for the good people in our city who have enough common sense to notice my tiny five-year-old standing on a corner by herself.
So back to my question: How do you teach your child that doesn't understand something? While I don't have all the answers and I don't want them. I have learned many things pertaining to Kezia, but one thing I have learned the most is that Kezia is here not for us to teach, but for her to teach us. This lesson from Kezia is to love her even when she does something she doesn't understand.
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