William Horberg

Reality Tv

More adventures from that wacky comic duo that we love!

Enjoy!

william

Holiday Dance

Diego and friends at Olvera Street, downtown Los Angeles December 23, 2011.

 

Enjoy!

william

Diego at the Beach

Like Neptune, Poseidon or The Submariner, Diego has always had a great, natural attraction to water. He was obviously a fish in a past life.

But with personal safety always a concern for the parents of any child, and particularly children with autism, who can often be fearless to the point of unwarranted risk-taking, a trip to the beach can be an adventure in the fine line between fear and love and the attraction that the ocean waves exert.

On our recent outing to the beach, Diego was simultaneously very conscious and concerned about the danger present, and incredibly drawn to fling himself headfirst into the surf. This was the result!

Enjoy!

william

The Fourth Rule

Today's post is a confluence of many of the various interests and influences that shape my life and crop up here from time to time: Chicago, autism, the writer Nelson Algren, my family, life lessons, and most of all, Diego's inspired sense of humor.

A Walk on the Wild Side is a 1956 novel by Algren, often quoted as the source for Algren's "three rules of life":

"Never play cards with a man called Doc. Never eat at a place called Mom's. Never sleep with a woman whose troubles are worse than your own."

To Algren's oft-quoted philosophy, I have to now add a fourth rule, the truth of which hit home last night during a family dinner outing at California Pizza Kitchen:

"Never think you know how to play connect the dots until you've played with a child on the autism spectrum!"

As you can see by the photo, Diego took the idea of "thinking outside the box" quite literally, as he pushed the boundaries of this venerable game in new directions.

In an interview once Algren noted, "The book asks why lost people sometimes develop into greater human beings than those who have never been lost in their whole lives."

Playing connect the dots with Diego was my own "walk on the wild side".

Enjoy!

william

Autistic Baseball

It was only a matter of time before Natalie's blossoming t-ball career caught Diego's interest. So I got him a baseball mitt and took him in the backyard to see how he responded to engaging in scooping up some grounders and playing a game of catch with his sister.

Not surprisingly, he very quickly invented his own version of the venerable game that Abner Doubleday supposedly laid down the rules for in Cooperstown in 1839 (like most received wisdom this commonly held truth has been pretty thoroughly debunked but persists nonetheless).

Diego liked the mitt and the ball, but he wasn't that interested in putting them to traditional usage. As far as I know, spinning hasn't been considered an essential part of the sport until now, but Diego's first move, which I have dubbed here The Roman Candle, was to place the ball in the mitt and hold his arms out in a cross and spin faster and faster until the ball rocketed out of the mitt in whatever direction it was pointed when the centrifugal force took over, shooting out like a roman candle firecracker, most often into the bushes where Natalie and I went to retrieve it.

The second spinning move he discovered was a bit more tried and true - holding the ball in his free hand and whipping his arm around in windmill fashion until once again the ball popped free in whatever random direction his arm was pointing when he let go. It was unpredictable to say the least, like a Hoyt Wilhelm knuckleball back in the days!

When it came to ground balls, I encouraged him to hold his mitt close to the ground and scoop them up in the open mouth of his glove - like an alligator. Quickly tiring of my tried and true instruction, he found some wildly imaginative poses to strike that involved twisting the mitt backwards while snaking his arm around and through and behind his legs and body like a contortionist from the Cirque du Soleil. He didn't manage to collect many balls this way, but that was hardly the point.

By far his favorite part of the sport was one of the most conventional and familiar to any fans of perennial last place teams like the 1962 Mets or the 1899 Cleveland Spiders (at only 20 wins holders of the worst season record in baseball history) - the old "throw it where they're not" trick.

Now that's fun!

I'm looking forward to taking the kids to the park for another practice session. It's time for baseball to reinvent itself for the new generation, and I have a feeling that Diego's innovative and unorthodox style might just catch on!!

Enjoy!

william 

 

Gone in Sixty Seconds?

Gareth Evans of Story Film asked me to repost this information here about what looks to be quite an interesting cinematic endeavor he has put together:

Hi William

I'm writing to let you know about a project we've launched called Sixty Second Stories. It's a global survey of cinematic storytelling from a new generation of filmmakers. 

We're going to bring the best ninety films together into a feature presentation at next year's Berlin film festival.

We kicked off the process at the Berlinale this year with a round of the competition specifically for participants in the Berlin Talent Campus.

We've been inundated with amazing Sixty Second Stories from all over the world, but have now, after some long and intense debate, selected a winner.

We're pleased to announce that the winning film in the first round of Sixty Second Stories is 'Girl in Limbo' by Marie Elisa Scheidt.

It's a beautiful, intimate and restrained cinematic portrait - we love it!

You can watch the film and find more information here: www.storyfilm.com/GIRLINLIMBO

While certainly not the filmmaker's intent, the Jenga blocks she is manipulating in the short film reminded me of one of the first classes Elsa and I ever took - an 8 week seminar on the FloorTime therapeutic approach for children on the autism spectrum.

In the instructor's demonstration, the stack of Jenga blocks in a tower represented the stages of childhood development, with the blocks missing or removed from the tower representing some of the developmental deficits that are common in children with special needs and brains whose wiring has been affected by autism. It was a graphic 3D representation of simultaneous strengths and weaknesses - the kind of incongruities that we often experience with Diego. 

I look forward to seeing the rest of the 60 second films that Gareth collects from around the globe, and hearing what associations they may provoke in you.

 Enjoy!

william

Social Skills

How many of us have the skills to effortlessly navigate social situations? To read non-verbal clues? To take turns listening, and to really focus on what the other person is saying and respond appropriately?

Making friends, keeping friends, being a good friend - these are the challenges all of us face at all walks of life. Children on the autism spectrum especially can struggle to decipher and to understand the fundamental building blocks of human interaction, and Diego, at times, needs a lot of help to get the clues that he needs to help him successfully navigate any group activity or one-on-one play with his peers.

This weekend he went to his very first social skills class, a kind of Emily Post's Rules of Etiquette for kids with special needs. It was pretty much a disaster, but in a good way, as every journey begins with a first step, and it really put into focus some of the areas we want to focus on as parents, and with his team of therapists and caregivers.

The greatest part for us was how, later, he was able to reflect back on and process the experience, and how it bubbled up in this amazingly expressive drawing he made - let's call it a mash-up portrait of the various children that were in the social skills group with him, combined with his current obsession of watching commercials for Trix cereal on YouTube!

You can see the Rabbit and the fruit shaped cereal floating up and out of the bowl, and one kid in line singing the Trix jingle, and at the same time he was able to recreate from memory the constellation of new kids he had met in class.

As always, we look forward to learning as much from Diego and this experience as we do watching him learn.

With his artistic skills, he will always find a creative way to communicate what he feels about the unfolding, mysterious process of mastering his social skills.

Enjoy!

william

 

Diego Talks The Walk

Hi there.

My Dad asked me to jump on the blog today and thank everyone who supported our Team - Diego's Friends - at the 2011 Walk Now For Autism at the Rose Bowl this past weekend, and to share a few words about my own thoughts and experiences of the day with all of you.

Don't let this picture fool you. I'm not hiding behind that red balloon because I'm shy or anything.

I just wanted to see what the world looked like all in RED. Pretty interesting. They say kids with Autism tend to see the world differently. I wonder if this is what they mean?

Large crowds and loud noises can sometimes be overwhelming to kids like me who are on the spectrum and have a hard time with SENSORY INPUT and SELF REGULATION and other ways in which the brain organizes and makes sense of the environment around me; but I've been coming to the Rose Bowl for 4 straight years now, and each year it seems I get more chill; at least that's what I hear my Mom and Dad proudly tell the other adults.

Me, I was feeling pretty excited.

We made our own handmade t-shirts this year for our Team, and it was pretty cool to see how many families find creative ways to show their colors and express their love!

Mom's good friend Maiz came out to walk with us with her son, and Dad wanted us all to pose for a Team Picture. But as you can see, I was much too busy taking care of business trying to wrestle away Maiz's son's super-cool blaster-shaped balloon to stand still for any posed group photograph!

What were you thinking, Dad?

The Rose Bowl parking lot was full of vendor stands with all kinds of activities for us kids. I don't know what that kid is doing in that u-shaped thing, but it looks pretty fun.

I think I'll try it myself.

Yep. I was right.

Last year I just didn't feel comfortable enough to let someone paint my face. But I'm turning six in a few months, and I've been thinking about my future.

Being Spiderman might actually be something I could get used to.

Hmmm. I thought everyone knew how to draw Spiderman, but it looks like next year I might have to bring the nice lady a comic book so she can have some reference to draw upon.

Running in to some old friends from pre-school made me realize just how far we've all come in a short period of time.

I guess I really should take a moment here to give props to all the great teachers and aides and therapists who have worked so hard to help me and my friends overcome some of our unique challenges.

Or maybe I'd rather take off running to go see the Yo Gabba Gabba-looking dude with all the gym equipment.

Climbing up was fairly easy. But now what?

Thanks for the help, Gabba-man.

Alright, maybe I do need to get to the gym more often.

But with all the cutbacks in school budgets these days, I'm just not getting the OT hours that I used to!

My sister has been going to ballet class, and it is obviously paying off as you can see in this wonderfully poised shot of her on the balance beam. I'm so proud of her. She's the best.

(But, hey, confidentially, what's up with all of that new-age "sharing" and "taking turns" stuff she's always trying to peddle to me? Doesn't she know that siblings are supposed to be rivals?)

My hats off to whoever invented these little individual rest stops for children with special needs. The small space and ball-filled seating area were just the right space for my over-taxed sensory system to take refuge and chillax. Sorry, Dad, that it was so hard to get me out of there, but do you think we could get one of those for home?

Speaking of special, it was pretty special that our friends Ellen and Henry showed up at the end of the walk to hang out with us. Henry is just about to graduate from sixth grade and you'd think he'd have a lot of other things on his mind and places to go on a Saturday rather than to come and hang out with a kindergartener and patiently listen to me recite the ad copy and theme song from the latest Chips Ahoy commercials I watch on YouTube.

But there he was - and wearing a Chicago Bulls Joakim Noah t-shirt no doubt.

Now that's what I call a good friend, and one that epitomizes the spirit of everyone who came together and supported our team -Diego's Friends!

Hey, that's ME!

Diego

P.S. Dad said our team raised almost $17,000 for autism research this year! And that the Walk altogether raised over $1.3 Million Dollars for Autism Speaks, the sponsor organization. Pretty cool, but with all that cabbage floating around I still can't understand why Dad said we couldn't afford that new Lego Adventure set I want! What's up with that? I've got Special Needs, I told him!

 

 

The Guacamole of His Deception

Diego usually does not like going to the movies in a theater.

I get where he is coming from. Too loud. Too unpredictable. Too much sensory input. Too much stimulation, even for people not on the autism spectrum.

So imagine our surprise when he went to see the new animated film "Rango" when it opened a few weeks ago, and then asked if he could go back and see it again!

I'm not sure what about this film in particular motivated him to brave the loud, dark environment of the cinema, but we wanted him to have a positive experience to build on, so we outfitted him with a pair of nice, big, enveloping noise-reduction headphones for the occasion.

He sat in my lap most of the time, and he really felt the movie on a visceral level; every car crash or chase or explosion seemed to ripple through his body. But he had a great time and left smiling.

I expected the second time around to be easier and more comfortable for him, but I brought the headphones along knowing this buffer had made it an easier sensory experience. Instead, although he had initiated the plan, by the time we got to the theater he was quite nervous. He asked over and over if we were going to see "Rango"; I knew he was afraid of seeing "Hop" or "Rio" or some of the other films that he loves watching the trailers for, but when asked if he wants to go and see he always quickly and emphatically says "NO!".

In fact I was a bit worried about what trailers they might show in front of the movie, and whether any would be too scary for him, and the little man was thinking the same thing, as his anticipation and anxiety mounted as we sat in the theater waiting for the show to start.

"I'm scared, Dad" he said, and I offered that we could leave any time he wanted, or we could go into the lobby and look at the posters, and then come back if he preferred. The brave little guy definitely wanted to stick it out, but by the time the movie began he was shaking.

"I'm too scared", he said again, as the Armadillo lay in the middle of the highway and beckoned the lizard to follow his own hero's journey, guided by the Spirit of the West. But he once again refused to leave, and I wanted him to work it out himself if he would stay or go.

With a literate and witty script by John Logan that sees the lizard become a real hero by taking on the role and pretending to be the fake sheriff of the community, and, as the singing Mariachi Owls put it "Sinking deeper into the guacamole of his own deception" as the story unfolds, I suddenly saw Diego's experience in terms of Rango's own mythic journey.

Diego was the one who was reinventing himself in the shoes of a typically developing child; he was the one putting on a brave face and going forth to confront his fears, and by the end of the movie, like Rango, he had fully embraced the Spirit of the West himself and was standing in the aisle of the theatre dancing along to the upbeat Tex-Mex swing of the beautiful hand drawn animated title sequence end credits. 

Rang-ooooo!

Dieg-ooooo!

Enjoy!

william

My Birthday Wish

I don't remember what I wanted for my birthday back on March 2, 1965 when I was Diego's age.

Probably a new Casterman edition oversize book of Herge's Adventures of Tintin!

(I'm the guy in the blue blazer with the big ears!).

But I have a pretty strong idea of what would make me tickled pink this year!

As long time readers of my blog know, Elsa and I have been participating in Autism Speaks "Walk Now For Autism" for the last several years to raise money and awareness for children who have been diagnosed on the autism spectrum to get the help and support they need and deserve.

As budget cuts across the country take a hard toll on states and counties and cities and all of the public institutions that have been set up and dedicated to providing that often life-saving or life-altering support for children with special needs, who are the most vulnerable among us, the work of an organization like Autism Speaks has never been more critical.

For my birthday wish today, won't you please consider joining us in spirit and making a generous donation to Autism Speaks in the name of our 2011 Walk Team this year - "Diego's Friends".

It is as simple as clicking:  http://www.walknowforautismspeaks.org/losangeles/williamhorberg 

We've set a goal to raise $20,000 for the Walk on April 23rd and we are already almost a quarter of the way to our goal thanks to the amazingly generous support of people like you.

Thanks!

william