Danny With Words powerful words on priming and possibilities

If you aren’t already, I cannot recommend following Danny With Words enough.

This post is a social media response to Danny’s list about the kinds of preparation and priming that Tara and Danny (and others) do for a pretty large, upcoming trip to Japan, where they have family and haven’t been in a long while.

There is so much to learn.

For some reason, two things stick with me a lot.

One is the insight of packing last minute with Danny putting the things into the luggage piece, but having someone support him with a list, then having someone else hide the luggage piece so that Danny’s body won’t unpack against Danny’s actual intentions.

The other thing is the bit about taking care to book seats that are on the correct side, together, with a window seat, but close enough to bathrooms so Danny does not have to stress about his body pushing through waiting passengers.

A lot about this list and wisdom sticks with me, and about these two bits in particular.

I’d like to try and explain why.

I think it’s powerful and reads empowering to have that kind of understanding of one’s own barriers and needs, as well as being able to communicate them – or finally having access to that kind of communication – as well as having an environment that understands and can communicate these things adaquately.

I am a lot more privileged in that I have more access to purposeful movement and speech than Danny (often) seems to have or had in the past. And yet, I have struggled – certainly to a different degree, and, again, with more privileges and safetey – with not always having access to purposeful movement, speech and tone modulation, meaning: I have also always worried about body/voice reactions if I get overstimulated, again, not in a comparable way.

I also support young persons whose impulsive body movements and speech are falsely interpreted to be intentional.

This does not compare. But from this position, it seems so powerful to read about how Danny and his support persons are able to understand Danny’s needs and barriers enough to come up with functional, respectful and practial solutions.

Danny being able to articulate in which ways he’d like to limit his body doing things he didn’t intend to do (around others or around his own needs) seems very powerful, empowering and educational to me.

I think this kind of education would be so helpful to better crafting support (or self-understanding) for many persons.