"I like your wheelchair!" & thoughts about accepting assistive devices

We were celebrating! We had the wheelchair parked at school for the whole of the first term... and then one day... she rode it and owned it! I admit there may have been some bribery involved (pink lunchbox like her friend, Gia), but at least she never looked back.

Redd Tedd was so excited about the wheelchair that he came home with Sarah-Hope for the weekend! And that happened to be a weekend when we were going camping in the Cedarberg for a friend's 40th. 

We drove in the bus to the Cedarberg and took the wheelchair with. The ground was firm enough there for Sarah-Hope to drive around the campsite a bit with the wheelchair which was great. We had a mobile ramp so also managed to put that down over a little canal so Sarah-Hope could make her way between our site and the next door one.

Kids were running around, some on bikes. A beautiful moment stayed with me when my friend's son, Charlie, came over. This was their simple and beautiful exchange:

Charlie: I like your wheelchair.

Sarah-Hope: I like your bike. 

What I love about young children is that they can see the clear benefit of getting to drive yourself around in a wheelchair. In fact, they want a turn themselves! Sarah-Hope is the lucky one who gets to drive AND who even has a little hooter. But what a lovely problem to have - when people are wanting to be around it.

Adults usually have an automatically sad association with the wheelchair. I can understand this - they can sense the loss it represents. 

I'm always thinking about how these assistive devices are interpreted in the world around Sarah-Hope's world. My hope would be that they promote discussion and inclusion. 

Sarah-Hope's Grade R Teacher, Pam Berry, had an idea about a tablet that Sarah-Hope would start using occasionally in class. She could invite a friend to join in with her by doing an activity on the tablet. That way, the potential for the tablet to separate Sarah-Hope from the class was reduced. This idea has been an important one in designing Sarah-Hope's support going forward in life.