“You need to cut your fingernails,” he tells her. “They’re pointy.”
She knows by now to ignore him.
“He goes wherever I go because he
likes me,” she says.
“Well sometimes I don’t,” he shoots back.
They sound like a typical couple, the sort who know each other well
enough to make these sorts of honest statements.
Amiel is 5 years
old. Elise is 4.
He has autism. She doesn’t. And it doesn’t
matter. They’re best friends.
At Early Emory Center for Child
Development and Enrichment, Amiel and Elise are in class together. Early
Emory’s preschool is an inclusion program for 12 months to 5-year-old
children. One-third of the students have autism. Two-thirds do not.
“Sometimes he hugs me,” Elise says. Amiel smiles and nods his head.
“That’s true!”
There is the bickering over age, such as when
Amiel begins to talk about Elise. “Well, she’s 4 years old.”
Elise interrupts. “4.5.”
“You’re 4 years old, you’re only 4.”
“No, I’m 4.5.”
Doctor Laurie Vismara, the director of Early
Emory, says, “We want to create playful moments of learning throughout
the day. It’s through those interactions that we can build meaningful
friendship.”
Vismara says research shows this inclusive
environment benefits all kids. “There’s a variety of reasons that
research shows this type of environment stimulates and promotes
development for both groups of children. What and how we teach young
children to learn comes from a combo of early educational practices
mixed with developmental research from brain science. It speaks again to
the opportunity of inclusion, which we would not get when we separate
children and say you must learn in this environment and you must learn
in this environment.”
For Amiel and Elise it was simple. They
liked each other.
“The first time we met I think we liked each
other,” Amiel remembers. “The first time we met we played with each
other right. I don’t know what day it was. Could have been a Monday.”
Amiel’s mom, Rachel Wallenstein says they’ve had Elise’s upcoming
birthday on the calendar since the middle of last year and that Elise is
his first real friend. “They were connected from like the first day.”
Elise’s mom, Amanda Sabetai says their friendship was initiated by
Amiel who helped to welcome her as a new student last year. “I feel like
he did a great job reaching out to her when she was new, helping her
feel comfortable and make friends.”
At four and a half and five
and a half Amiel and Elise remind us we have much to learn from each
other.
Despite differences, it’s possible to travel the same
path, together.
4 April 2017
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/amiel-and-elise-friendship-beyond-autism_us_58f4f6bce4b015669722515a
