Stories of Bridgeway House: Samantha and Nicky

Presenter: As part of KEPW’s Autistic Pride Day Radiothon, we’re visiting with parents here at Bridgeway House, your rainbow infinity school for Eugene, Springfield, Lane County, and beyond. Here’s Samantha, whose son Nicky is in his third year at Bridgeway:

[00:00:14] Samantha: We found out about Bridgeway, actually, through the school district where we live. When he was graduating out of early intervention, the local EC CARES is what it’s called, basically going from early intervention into kindergarten is when they help with crafting an IEP, determining what the best fit for him educationally would be. And at that point, honestly, I don’t think I had heard of Bridgeway.

[00:00:40] And so I was a bit surprised because, you know, I figured he’d be going to our local school. We live out in Elmira, so the Fern Ridge School District. But yeah, after hearing about it and the kind of environment and support it could provide, you know, it sounded like, you know, a great fit. It was, you know, something to get used to sending my younger son to a totally different school than his older sister attended at the time.

[00:01:09] And it is a bit of a bus ride for him. But honestly that part, he loves the bus ride and yeah, it’s been very, very excellent for him.

[00:01:22] Presenter: What’s Nicky’s favorite part of the school day? The same as every other student on the planet. Here’s his mom, Samantha:

[00:01:29] Samantha: Recess. A big fan of the gross motor play. He is a climber and you know, even at eight he likes to climb up high, jump off stuff, but also, you know, try different things out.

[00:01:42] You know, I know he is not the only one—the kids often get to ‘The Indoor,’ the big indoor gym they have out at the Camp Creek location, let’s take his socks and shoes off and run around and stuff like that, you know. And I mean, he’s my son, he can be very challenging, I know that.

[00:02:01] He can be a little stubborn about, you know, getting him to do things that he’s not particularly interested in. But I love how they work with him and encourage it. And, you know, a big part of that is like pushing him outside of his comfort zone little by little, without forcing things and making it difficult.

[00:02:22] My son, he can be very rigid in his ideas and how things should be or how he wants things done, you know, but they do a lot of, you know, showing him a different way, alternative views and yeah, just kind of expanding the idea box.

[00:02:39] So having him surrounded by so many people who are compassionate and very resourceful and you know, they know what they’re doing, able to handle him and yeah, just provide him with all the care and support in an educational setting, it’s, yeah, it’s incredible.

[00:03:03] He’s had honestly, so much growth in the last three years since he’s been going there. At this point he is mostly non-verbal, but he is using more and more words every day. He loves to sing, like most of the words we do hear from him are in song form.

[00:03:19] But he is also using AAC (Augmentative and Alternative Communication), the iPad with the communication software. It’s got picture icons and kids can use it to communicate things and build sentences. And it’s got the picture part, but it also has audio, so they hear the words more and more and yeah, he’s become very familiar with that and using it to express what he wants to tell people.

[00:03:46] He is a big fan of Disney. He loves the Moana ‘You’re Welcome’ song. He’s also a big fan of Cookie Monster. So ‘C Is for Cookie’ is a big one he has been singing lately. He does the ABCs and it’s kind of funny, he won’t sing along with people, it’s only one at a time.

[00:04:04] So we have to like start singing a song and then just cut it off and then he’ll finish it. Yeah. He loves listening to music or singing. Anyone else singing too.

[00:04:13] Teacher Gina has been his only teacher so far and that’s something that I think is obviously unique and helpful for kids with autism is he started in her classroom in kindergarten and she has a range of ages, and I know he is now, you know, it’s getting to the upper range of that age group.

[00:04:33] So he has been in a classroom for, this is the third year, and she’s amazing, honestly, I can’t say enough nice things about Gina. She’s incredibly understanding and helpful and supportive and it’s always appreciated when she’ll just text me good news, things they’ve noticed, just some pictures of seeing your kid having fun and exploring new things and especially the social aspect.

[00:05:02] He doesn’t play with other kids in the most typical way. He loves being around other kids and it’s still a lot of parallel play. He’s just happy to be around them. But you know, the one-on-one interaction is something that he is working on and when I get to see instances of that, you know, it’s amazing.

[00:05:22] They’re constantly working on his, you know, writing skills and art skills and, you know, all these little things that, as someone who is not an educator and doesn’t have the background of, this type of development, it’s always amazing when they’re pointing out things that, I maybe didn’t pay enough attention to, and (they) let me know when they’re working on certain skills when he has mastered things.

[00:05:46] I love to hear about it. And in the day-to-day of being a parent, you don’t always see these differences as things change, but it’s always great to hear from their perspective and seeing how much he’s grown and yeah, definitely just incredibly grateful that he gets to be a part of the community out at Bridgeway.

[00:06:12] You know, now that we’ve been there for a few years, I can’t imagine him going anywhere else. It’s honestly such a very supportive environment where he’s able to be himself and not failing to meet expectations in a certain way that I feel like a traditional school, it would be just completely different.

[00:06:32] Presenter: A Bridgeway parent shares how her son Nicky has grown in his first three years at the school’s Camp Creek site.

[00:06:38] You can learn more about Bridgeway House and how you can donate at BridgewayHouse.org,  or call (541) 345-0805.

During summer break, calls to Bridgeway House will be automatically transferred to school admin team cell phones. For faster service, call the cell phones directly: (541) 743-5159 and (505) 930-6910.