Nick, like the rest of us, learns best from watching others. When all of our kids were little, we noticed that often as his younger siblings were growing up and working on a specific developmental skill, Nick would make great progress in that area. Then that sibling would pass him up, and Nick would be on a plateau until the next child was at the level Nick was and he would gain skills again.
Fortunately, this pattern continued throughout the years that Rosie and Darren and their kids were living with us. I really believe that having the younger children around helped make is possible for Nick to gain far more skills than the professionals originally anticipated.
His developmental progress slowed as he became an adult.
Then Arden and I received the great blessing of grandchildren and Nick was surrounded by little people again. He has nieces and nephews that love him.
Nick has always loved airplanes and airports, which has been a wonderful thing. However, he didn’t know how to play with toys. That is to say, he didn’t know how to play with toys YET.
A couple of years ago, Rowan, Derek and Tashas’s son who was 2 1/2 years old at the time, noticed that Uncle Nick had lots of cool toys, including airplanes, in his bedroom. They were on display. No one played with them, until Rowan.
Over a couple of weeks time, we noticed that every time Rowan took one of the airplanes, Nick was complaining that he needed it back. And when we made Rowan give it back to him, Nick would pretend to fly the plane up in the air, including making the jet noises. He was modeling his playing after what he saw his nephew doing. Nick had gained a new developmental skill. I was so excited. He now plays with his toys, especially the airplanes.
Ok he was 35 when he learned to do this. But I never give up on the prospect of Nick growing and gaining skills. I think that this is one of the reasons that I don’t give up on anyone growing and changing, including myself.
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