The Hand that Feeds

Just how deep do you believe?
Will you bite the hand that feeds?
Will you chew until it bleeds?
Can you get up off your knees?
Are you brave enough to see?
Do you want to change it?

So naive
I keep holding on to what I want to believe
I can see
But I keep holding on and on and on and on

Will you bite the hand that feeds you?
Will you stay down on your knees?

I think that song has a new meaning to me, since my turtle nipped me for the first time! Oh, I was so sad! :(

I was rearranging her basking wood, when she snuck up from underneath my hand and nipped my left thumb! I think the psychological trauma impaired my judgment of how physically painful it really was. =P Still, I'm sad. I just thought that no matter what, she'd show me love, just like my clinic kiddo #2.

Not surprisingly, I have 2 kiddos with autism this quarter. Re: their communication, the 2K are very similar, but behaviorally, they're quite different (so far). On Monday, K1 screamed and cried bloody murder for me to get away from her! I think her schedule was disrupted and too abruptly so I couldn't get her back on track. On top of that, she kept getting everyone's names confused so she yelled at me, "GET AWAY FROM ME!" Then in her next breath, shouted, "I want Kr--/Shewyl/Cawol!" sometimes saying my classmate's name, sometimes saying my name (to which I'd tell her, "You're already with me"), and sometimes combining me and my classmate's name and then gliding the final product. On Wednesday, K1 screamed and cried because she didn't want to leave me so she fought her mom, telling her she didn't want to go home and she wanted to stay w/ me! That was a first. Never mind what the kiddo thinks - my classmates believe I make little 6 y/o small potatoes cry. :(

As for K2, she's always so excited to come to the clinic and see me. No matter how boring our session is (there's just no way for me to make standardized testing any fun), she still works hard and loves me just the same at the end of our snooze-fest. She even gave me a little "surprise" the other day - a tiny "bedazzled" doggy toy. My first gift from a kiddo! :D

I had to brag about my *new* bedazzled doggy toy b/c last quarter, my classmate's kiddo gave her "Duke," a dirty, raggedy old parrot. SY asked if BD made it, and BD said, "of course!" even though the tag labeled "McDonald's" was clearly sticking off the dirty parrot's rump. It's the thought that counts, I guess?

As for my turtle, well, I think she still loves me. I think it was just a love bite. I think she was just throwing a tantrum and biting (like some kiddos w/ autism) because I hadn't fed her yet (parental neglect). Oh no! Does my turtle have autism, too?

I think I'm caught in the maelstrom of autism-overdiagnosing that our profs worn us against!