Father teaches blind autistic son to shift gears

[LGAFF]

I hope this video works; so many things we take for granted, or lack tolerance/patience for; as the parent of a severely autistic child I often think about the things in life I have missed, but I value the life lessons I have learned about understanding whats important in life and feel sorry for so many people who are consumed with such unimportant things......life is what you make of it


http://dailypicksandflicks.com/2017/...o-shift-gears/

[DRM500RUBYZR-1]

Fantastic!

What a great Dad!


Marty

[FU]

Now that is something to post up !

[LGAFF]

My daughter took an interest in driving....she can't talk so the first time was a surprise, I went to back up, looked behind me, and as I let off the brake....the car moved forward. I thought to myself...Christ I must be getting old, how did I have it in drive instead of reverse.

The next time I caught her in the act, she was shifting it into drive when I looked back.

So I started to let her shift the car into park, reverse and drive......but had to set few ground rules as she got over excited and shifted our SL600 into park as I was pulling into a space...not so good on the transmission.

So now she points to the correct letter on the selector and then shifts so I know what she is doing, guess its time to teach her on the manual...she is also the head garage door opener operator

[efnfast]

Originally Posted by LGAFF

My daughter took an interest in driving....she can't talk so the first time was a surprise, I went to back up, looked behind me, and as I let off the brake....the car moved forward. I thought to myself...Christ I must be getting old, how did I have it in drive instead of reverse.

The next time I caught her in the act, she was shifting it into drive when I looked back.

So I started to let her shift the car into park, reverse and drive......but had to set few ground rules as she got over excited and shifted our SL600 into park as I was pulling into a space...not so good on the transmission.

So now she points to the correct letter on the selector and then shifts so I know what she is doing, guess its time to teach her on the manual...she is also the head garage door opener operator

Put a big smile on my face and a tear in my eye. Thank you Lee.

[G-Sting]

Inspiring video and stories. Thank you.

G

[Hog]

Nice video and stories Lee.

My Brother Allen, who is blind, has Retinitis Pigmentosa a degenerative retinal disease that is part of a larger genetic issue known as Bardet-Biedl Syndrome. He is highly intelligent with some mental deficits. He is 13 months to the day older than me, and as he lost his sight during our early public school years, well, kids can be mean and in public school they would pick on my Brother. Needless to say, I got into quite a few recess/playground battles. It just wasn't fair to pick on a kid that couldn't help himself, I have always been a "hope the underdog wins" kinda guy. As he lost his vision, the rural public school wasn't equipped at the time to properly educate my Bro, so for grade 4 he was sent to the W Ross McDonald School for the Blind. At that school, he flourished by academically and socially. The teacher student ratio was 6 to 1, instead of 30:1 in most public schools. He learned how to read braille, how to use the tapping of his cane on the ground and how that sound bounces off of his immediate surroundings on its way to his ears. He literally uses this form of echo-location to "see" his surroundings.
OK well that is a brief description of my Brother Allen.

Every Saturday I pick Allen up from his place and then we go to the local T/A truckstop where we meet up with some country neighbours for breakfast. After we eat, I take him for his weekly grocery shopping. Well this one Winter morning, we had just gotten few inches of fresh snow. As we arrived at the grocery store, I noticed that the store had not yet cleared the snow from its parking lot. That morning I was driving a 1998 extended cab 2wd truck, the parking lot is huge and there were a few cars up near the store, so I told Allen to hold on and I blew a few slow donuts. Well Allen was laughing out loud, as he's always liked the sound of non-stock exhausts on V8s. I asked Allen if he wanted to try. He said no, I don't have a drivers license. I laughed and told him that we were in a large parking lot and that I would be sitting right beside him to help him. He agreed so we switched spots, he sat in the drivers seat and I sat in the middle seat right beside him. I had my left leg over near his feet so I could brake if needed. Then off we went driving at about 10mph, just idling around pretty much, I told him to when and where to steer. He had a big grin on his face the entire time. I asked if he wanted to try a donut and he said yes. So I guided him into the middle of the lot and had him stop. I had him crank the steering wheel as he hit the gas. We just sat there and sun the rear tires for a second, but eventually the rear end kicked out and we were performing proper donuts in the snow. I told him to hit the brakes and after we stopped, I had him shift into park and we switched positions and I pulled up to the store and into a parking spot. I went over to the passenger door and collected Allen and offered up my right elbow that he grabs with his left hand while he taps his cane with his right hand. We walked to the store and a guy was standing there smoking a cigarette. He asked "Did you have fun?" to which I asked Allen, Did you have fun? To which he answered yes it was lots of fun. Then we went shopping. I'm sure Allen will never forget that Winter day when he got to drive and blow donuts with his Brother, I know I wont.

[FU]

Great story Paul !! I'm sure your brother will cherish that day forever.

[efnfast]

Alright, donuts in the snow.
Me and a couple of buddies are 18 or so, back of the mall in the big empty snow covered parking lot.
Down the hill we go, one at a time doing donuts in the lower lot.
Along comes the cops, crap.
Down the hill he goes, donuts in the empty parking lot.
He comes back up and asks us to leave, people were complaining.
We left, cool cop.

[Tripler]

Wonderful stories guys . My son also autistic ,16 at the time , now 23 , I let him drive my 1999 5 speed Honda Civic in a parking lot of course . He took instructions well on how to depress the clutch , move shifter to 1st gear and release clutch slowly . Of course , just like his father does , he hammers it once were moving and laughing at the same time . Well I panic of course and as trees at the edge of the parking lot are getting larger , I pull the handbrake hard , reach over and turn the key back once which kills the engine but gives us steering . Once stopped I was also laughing . Oh . I also forgot . When he was 6 and becoming a little bit vocal I let him drive the car for a few feet in front of our house . Like when he was 16 10 years later, he took instruction perfectly . He depressed the clutch , moved the shifter into first and then let the clutch out slowly . he said these exact words . Look , I'm drivng ! I was one proud father . We never thought he would become verbal but my son has a wicked sense of humour which has really got him to open up . He loved it when I would do trip and fall tricks . Thankgoodness he does not ask me to do that anymore . Don't think my body could take it . Adam now has learned to use the gas lawnmower and cuts our lawn plus 2 of of our neighbours . I also showed him how to use the snowblower and he also snow blows the driveway in the winter .He can do this now all unsupervised . You show him once how to do something , and he does it .For myself I have be shown many times to learn a new skill .He has used table saws , drills , cut saw , and I will be showing him soon how to use the weed wacker . He rides on my motorcycles with me fearlessly . I had no idea what an Autistic child was capable of until we had Adam . I knew nothing of the Autisim spectrum . But over these last 23 years Adam has amazed and made me proud many times over . He is also an avid swimmer and has many medals from Special Olympic swim meets . So a lesson here is to never underestimate or think a person with a disability cannot do things . There much smarter and have a more logical mind then any of us will ever have lol . There just plain amazing ...