Growing Pains of a Teenage Genius

Cameron Thompson is amazing at mathematics and has been diagnosed with aspergers.

Physics Genius

Jacob Barnet is a 13 year old giving a TED talk. It would be hard to tell from the video but Jacob has autism and has learned at an early age how to use it to his advantage.

Things Diabetics Say

Here's an awesome video from Lorielle Record about diabetics and the daily struggle they face against sugar.

The Little Mermaid

Such a smart, sweet, amazing girl who has a conditions nicknamed, "Mermaid Syndrome." She has such an incredible personality and outlook.

Innovative Therapeutic Riding Program

This week I got to volunteer with the Innovative Therapeutic Riding Program down in Idaho Falls, Idaho. I was really impressed with what I saw there. If you don't know what Equine Assisted Therapy is, it's a type of therapy that uses horses to help communicate with and strengthen disabled individuals. It's scope includes children with autism or physical deformities to adults with PTSD or trauma victims. One of the kids there had some developmental and physical delays and was doing a lesson that involved guiding the horse to certain colored cones, stopping, backing up, and trotting. While he was trotting, he landed in the saddle slightly off balance and slipped off the horse onto the ground. I thought because of her disability he probably wouldn't get back on but he did, and without hesitation. It takes a really strong personality to recover from a fall and I was really impressed with him. I wouldn't consider his disability to be something that holds him back at all, if anything it's made him stronger.

JUST ASK

Two people with sensory disabilities share their insights on disability.

TALK TO ME

The story of an amazing young girl with a disability that won't disable her. 

Lesson on "R" Mountain

The video that really stood out to me was the one about a man who couldn't see and yet climbed to the summit of Mt. Everest, one of the most dangerous peaks in the world. I think it stood out because it changed my perspective. I think I was in the same mindset of the man who said it would be hard to get a blind man up to the top of the mountain. It also stood out to me because just a couple days before I watched the video I had a similar experience. (I'll be changing names.)

For those of you who've been to rexburg you probably know about "R Mountain" or Menan Buttes. I come from a background of frequent hiking and backpacking so R mountain barely counts as a warmup in my book. With this mind set I invited 2 of my roommates and an FHE brother to climb it with me one night. I already knew that one of my roommates, Jane, has severe anxiety and asthma so I planned on pacing the climb with her to keep her from having an asthma or panic attack. The second roommate, Megan, had never left Manhattan, In the parking to the mountain Joe (FHE Bro) also told me that he was afraid of heights. Jane wanted to get to the top quickly so she and I ended up ahead of Megan and Jo even with me making her slow down or stop when I noticed her breathing getting gaspy. Once we got to the top I decided to head back down as the sun was getting low and I wanted to check on the other 2. What I found on my way back down taught me a fast lesson. Megan was sitting on the ground looking panicked and Joe was on all fours looking terrified, unable to move. After a lot of calming I was able to talk both of them off the mountain but I will never again disregard chronic fears, or handle a group of people like this one the same way again. Knowing about the emotional states of my group members,  I should have kept the group together and watched for discomfort in them before it got paralyzing. All of them were determined to get to the top, it was just poor leadership that got in the way.

Although it's not the same as guiding a blind man up Everest, it taught me about paying attention to, learning about, and ajusting for peoples needs. This was the foundation for my outline this week. Fears, anxiety, asthma, and panic attacks are fairly common minor disabilities that need to be accounted and ajusted for. My question however, is how to do this in a way that isn't demeaning, patronizing or that makes people feel disabled or how to handle groups of people with different needs and dynamics.