Saturday, May 10, 2014

Pediatric Anecdote #1: M&Ms


As you may know, my pediatric rotation was the one that I enjoyed the most. I had a lot of fun working with kids and high school students with autism and other conditions. I would like to share some posts with some of the stories from this rotation. Here's the first one:

One of my patients was a high school student with autism who was non-verbal. One day, I went on a road trip with his whole special ed class to help them pick materials to later on teach them how to make beaded bracelets. It seems that seeing me in his weekly road trip made him realize that I now was officially part of his class. 

The next day, he grabed me by my arm (I was super scared since he is way bigger than me), and dragged me to his lunch box. He sat down, opened a small bag of m&ms, took one for him and  gave another one to me . He had shared with me! His helper told me that he rarely does that without someone asking him to do it. That day, he dragged me 2 more times to his lunchbox to share another m&m and a cookie with me. It was so funny because he never looked at me in the eyes during the whole process. Since that day every time I eat m&ms I smile and remember how such a simple thing had made my day.