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The second thing was that my teacher graded my
handwriting. I became very upset when I did not get
an “A” on everything. My mom and my occupational
therapist had ameetingwithmy teacher and explained
that I was taking occupational therapy to learn how to
write and should not be graded on handwriting. The
teacher agreed and never did it again, she would put,
“Not Your Best Work” on my paper. This practice
worked for me until the end of elementary school.
The third thing was that I was in a bus wreck and
my bus driver blamed me; she stated that I was the
reason that the bus wrecked. They looked on the bus
camera and saw that I did nothing wrong and that it
was not my fault. They made sure that I got a seat belt
on the bus afterwards as my mom recommended.
My occupational therapist was always trying to help.
She would research thoughts on how to help autistic
children. For example, she suggested brushing me
with a surgical brush to try to calm me. My parents
tried brushing me for eight weeks. Though this felt
good, we could not tell that it helped.
One of my fears was a song called, “Let’s Get Ready
to Rumble”. I was afraid of that song because the bell
was too loud. When Liberty High School played in
the state basketball tournament at Liberty University,
the sound system was loud and it hurt my ears. They
loved to play this song at The Vine Center and I
would get up, go to the restroom, and play in the
sink. A couple years later, they played the song at a
picnic at Virginia Military Institute and I took off and
ran to the barracks. My parents were frightened when
I took off and ran and they were surprised because