Yesterday was the day that the little movie was made about Beth and Jessica. It’s for church groups, to show people that they don’t have to be afraid of disability. It’s a wonderful idea and should go out to schools and other groups also I believe. After speaking extensively with Lindsay and Richard who were doing the movie I realised how little people knew about disability. How isolating it can be for the whole family at times and especially for the child involved.
The girls were really excited and quickly changed out of their school clothes when they came home. I had done a big clean up of the house which entailed shoving everything into my room and shutting the door! Bridie is moving into Beth’s room this week and we have bought a double bunk but we’re not getting it til the weekend. We had taken Beth’s bed apart anticipating getting it last weekend so she just has a mattress on the floor at the moment. I hope people watching the movie don’t think that we don’t have a bed for her. It reminds me of Harry Potter under the stairs. We don’t bother getting the autistic kid a bed, they don’t need one!
When filming started the girls were singing songs with each other. Or at least I could hear Beth’s voice ringing out. She loves anything that gives her the chance to showcase her crazy side. They kept sending Richard out so that they could change their clothes, they were obviously playing fancy dress while they were singing. We then went up to the local park. What a stroke of luck, they had just reopened it yesterday after replacing all of the play equipment. Richard filmed as Lindsay and I talked. She told me she would love to come out to a hags meeting to discuss the parents perspective on our kids having friends who don’t have a disability. Richard had a flip camera which you can see yourself while taking a photo of yourself. He gave it to he girls to take photos of each other and them together.
After filming them playing Richard did a little interview with Jessica about what her thoughts are on autism and what she would say to kids who were scared of kids like Beth. Her answer was something like “Some people think they’re crazy but once you get to know them they are really fun.” I thought that summed it up so well. Her and Beth have become really good friends. She’s such a gorgeous girl and is wonderful with Beth. Earlier Richard had interviewed the 2 of them in the bedroom when they had been playing. They had answered together the questions about how long they had known each other and what they liked about each other. He said he would then show the photos and the clips with their voices over the top. I can’t wait to see the finished result. What a fantastic project. How great to educate the world that our kids deserve friends too. That they have feelings and humour and are worth being friends with. They are our future and more and more kids seem to be diagnosed with autism and aspergers each year. Maybe we have to try and stop putting them into our mold of what’s right. It’s possible we can learn from them and try to be more in their mold. It’s certainly more entertaining than ours!
