Drawing in Darkness

This morning I ran into Sam's speech therapist who happened to have come in Saturday morning to finish up some work. She told me that Sam was really doing well and engaging with the environment in a way that they have not seen her do before. Pam told me that for instance, one day last week when Sam was in class, she was cold and instead of just saying "I'm cold, "I'm cold" which is what she has done in the past, she instead rolled her wheelchair over to the fan and shut it off. Pam also told me that they are now trying to teach Sam to roll the wheelchair with her hands, and she is starting to do it. This afternoon, I asked Sam to demonstrate this for me and she did. I was very impressed. On the down side, Sam has developed this tick where she constantly repeats the same word or words over and over again..especially when she is tired or bored. She seems to have some control over it but not much. I hope that eventually this will disappear, but will talk with people this week at the facility about it. Also, today in the afternoon I took out the "Buddha Board" for Sam to play with for a little bit. It is a way to paint with water on a board, and the more water you use the darker the picture you paint. The water slowly evaporates and you can use the board over and over again. The picture is mostly shades of gray. Sam spent about an hour painting today and at a certain point turned to me and said "I'm drawing in darkness". It seemed quite the poetic statement, and also quite a factual statement as well.