Learning What the Signs Say

“Figuring out his signs, it’s like watching a third-base coach.”

Says Brian Rattner about his oldest son, Jarrett, who is 13 years old and does not talk or walk. An October 23rd New York Times article describes Jarrett’s bar mitzvah last Sunday, and how his parents came to focus on “who Jarrett was and what he could do”:

When he wanted a ball, he would pound his chest until he got it. “Sometimes, he wants to communicate so badly, you can hear him from the other room pounding his chest,” Mr. Rattner said. “There’s a lot of emotion there.”

He is good at making eye contact, and his mother noticed that if she asked what he wanted for lunch — turkey? tuna? chicken? — he would say yes by blinking his eyes and then holding them closed an extra second.”

Hence, that need to learn to “read the signs” like a third-base coach—-something Jim and I have tried to do to understand how to communicate with Charlie on his terms, in the language he’s trying to teach us.