State Special Olympics swim meet 10/12/2018

Max swimming the 100 yards freestyle. 

Max swimming the 50 yard butterfly

Max was asked to be on the channel 12 news live. 

Thank you Crystal (Max's cousin) for saving it on your DVR. 

Communication over the years

These pics cards were so helpful for communicating with Max.

We used them daily until he was able to verbalize. 

I look back and see how he has grown with communicating. 

He can now express his thoughts. Oh what a blessing that is. 

What a joy it is that I don't have to figure out what he needs,

 feels sad about, or if he has a earache, headache or stomach ache. 

Oh those days were rough. 

So often, I could not for the life of me understand why he was upset. 

Now he can give me some indication of what he needs or wants. 

I still have to give him daily reminders like, 

brush your teeth, make your bed and make sure he has his house key.

When he turned sixteen we felt it was time for him to have his own house key and he treasures it. 

For Special Olympics USA Games

 Max had to wear a fit-bit and achieve a million steps 

from February to July.

He was able to understand how the watchband worked. 

He sure has come a long ways from using pics cards to reading a watchband. 

 He was successful with the million steps and

 also successful in understanding the reason for wearing the fit-bit 

which he did not enjoy wearing.