Parents: Believe in yourself, perceive your child with open eyes!!!

I am reading and hearing about the beautiful and profound journey  of Kristine Barnett and her son, Jacob who was diagnosed with moderate to severe autism when he was 3 years old. Kristine was told that he would never read or write.  Today at 14, he is taking graduate level classes at university in Indianapolis and scientists are predicting he will win a Nobel Peace Prize some day as he continues to explore the way the Universe works.   

Kristine’s new book The Spark: A Mother’s Story of Nurturing Genius was released this year.  

One of the striking things is that Kristine followed her intuition despite her own fears and those of others around her.  She took Jacob out of his special education classes to work with him herself.  

Kristine is both an advocate for parent’s being experts in knowing their own children.   And she is also an advocate for the fact that each child has their own unique perception of the world and that must be honoured. 

I heard Jacob in an interview this week where he was explaining that when he was young and looking at the shadows and light for endless hours (something that would be labelled as abnormal and autistic behaviour)  that he was actually seeing mathematical formulae. 

Kristine says that she now believes that there were good reasons for all of Jacob’s behaviors and that he simply has a unique perception of the Universe.  In a radio interview she was saying that if your child is rolling a pen over and over like Jacob he or she may be learning something that will contribute to his purpose later on in life. At the ripe old age of 15, Jacob is telling us that he feels that he is doing all this learning in physics and mathematics so that he can explore new areas and invent new formulae that explain the nature of the Universe.     Why bother just learning what we already know? 

Like other people who have been diagnosed with autism eg. Dr. Temple Grandin, professor of animal science who also describes the unique way she can think like a cow and thereby design more human structures for cattle, Jacob is giving us insight not only into his unique perceptions, super talents and gifts  and showing us that perhaps the biggest disservice is labelling anyone.

I invite you to think of your child’s behavior as Kristine does – that there is a reason for every behavior.  And I invite you to the joy of meeting your child in his or her own world.  What is  your child’s perception of the world?  This is when we expand our own perceptions!   We are learning that a child’s perceptions and a child’s spirit – what he or she is here to express go far beyond labels. 

And that as a parent  I invite  you as Kristen says to never allow anyone else to limit your child in any way.  Each child is here to express his or her unique gifts and talents!!!!

I invite you to ask what your child thinks of the following videos?

Here’s a great video of Jacob teaching space- time travel a number of years ago:     Click here 

Here’s another great video of Jacob teaching at a TED talk:  Click here

Here’s Jake on 60 Minutes:  Click here