Black and White Ball

July 20, 2008

After more than three years, coming down the inclined floor isn’t easily exciting. Steve has two such slanted floors, one in Baraboo and one in Harbin. Most people would call them slides. The idea is that, by controlling the angle so that almost any movement propels Steve forward and downward, gravity makes crawling easy to learn.

Eighteen months ago, Steve was supposed to get half his body off the end of the slide onto the level floor – that’s where the Institutes get the child to work hard without knowing it. The farther the child goes onto the flat, the closer he or she is to crawling on a regular floor. Eventually, the little ones leave the inclined floor behind entirely.

Last fall, Steve was supposed to get ¾ of his body off the slide onto the flat, to his knees. Occasionally he did, and his best effort ever – beyond his knees – secured him prolonged applause from the workers and me, and a long rest (with all his body off to just past his knees, but he went no farther) while I took photos.

But this summer, he seems to have lost any ability to get more than half his body off – to his waist again. This he can do any time almost, and maybe half his butt the last day or two. It is true that he can veer right and slide his entire body off sideways, or all but the corner of the upper hip. But sideways isn’t the way toward crawling.

Whenever I go away to America, he regresses on the slide. But this time, on my return he was really a stick in the mud. The slide was slightly higher than normal, because of the limited space in our small temporary apartment. That should have made things easier, but it didn’t. He didn’t move much. I think part of the problem is that his left wrist is very tight again (not his fingers, though), so he can’t get his two arms under his chest to push ahead.

Now I’ve got him working hard again. He does seem to use his hips and legs more to waggle down, hardly a crawl, however. We alternate going down the slide with short periods of holding in four-point position on a nearby mat -- motionless, he supports his weight on his hands and knees. We help with balance at his hips, and hold his hands flat on the floor. It is really tiring. Luckily he loves music, and the keyboard is waiting. We reward him at the bottom of the slide, the music rushes us into 4-point, he gleefully waggles his knees and legs as we set him down on the mat.

He was getting too tired, slide then four-point repeated again and again, so I started alternating playing “catch” with a black and white ball – half the time, he goes to four-point after slide, half the time plays with the ball.

It is just like a volleyball, but not quite so big. And by now, not so full of air. It’s a little soft to his touch. I notice with the ball, how active his fingers have become, even his left fingers move over the surface of the ball. He feels that surface so well, and this week (not before) he can move the ball around with one or both hands. He can’t pick it up himself, but once he has it, he has its feel, he is ball handling.

Playing catch with Steve has long meant that I hold each hand with one of my hands, and thus catch the ball or throw the ball, or bat the ball with his hands.

Now, I am letting go of his hands before the ball arrives. He usually catches it against his body, or traps it against his lap. A few times, he has caught with his fingers in mid air.

That really makes him happy. All of us happy!

He loves playing with the black and white ball now.

The best times, we have three workers playing with us, and Steve and I choose trickily which one we throw the ball to.

I sit right behind him on the couch. Looking over Steve’s shoulder, it is wonderful to see his long fingers, sensitive and pressing, controlling the black and white ball. He is a twelve year old boy.

Downstairs, outside the apartment tower, we often see another twelve-year, practicing, practicing, his hands all round a basketball.