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May. 18th, 2010 11:57 pmMy baby brother just moved out.
Even though only a tiny fraction of the house is emptier, the whole place feels like it should echo. The fact is that he shared a room with one of my other brothers. So, really, barely a half of one room is empty.
Still.
It's feeling a little empty nest-ish around here.
The brother who is still here is slightly older than the baby, but he was diagnosed with Mild Retardation back in kindergarten. I had him re-tested about three years ago and it's the same diagnosis. There's a learning delay and he has some trouble parsing social cues. He can be very introverted and I really don't know what to do to help him. He's in a few programs through the local Regional Center, but he's is very, very high functioning and the services seem to be geared more towards people with much more severe developmental disabilities. The hard part with him is encouraging him to be more social and then finding avenues for him to interact with others. The majority of the people with services through the learning center aren't in his peer group and I have no clue how to help him find a peer group. I know that some things he had to do on his own. He's not always comfortable with people and it can take him quite a bit of time to become comfortable. My baby brother always provided a certain amount of company. I'm a little unsure about how this is going to go without him around.
Plus, I just kinda miss the knucklehead. It hasn't even been a whole hour and I already miss him.
Even though only a tiny fraction of the house is emptier, the whole place feels like it should echo. The fact is that he shared a room with one of my other brothers. So, really, barely a half of one room is empty.
Still.
It's feeling a little empty nest-ish around here.
The brother who is still here is slightly older than the baby, but he was diagnosed with Mild Retardation back in kindergarten. I had him re-tested about three years ago and it's the same diagnosis. There's a learning delay and he has some trouble parsing social cues. He can be very introverted and I really don't know what to do to help him. He's in a few programs through the local Regional Center, but he's is very, very high functioning and the services seem to be geared more towards people with much more severe developmental disabilities. The hard part with him is encouraging him to be more social and then finding avenues for him to interact with others. The majority of the people with services through the learning center aren't in his peer group and I have no clue how to help him find a peer group. I know that some things he had to do on his own. He's not always comfortable with people and it can take him quite a bit of time to become comfortable. My baby brother always provided a certain amount of company. I'm a little unsure about how this is going to go without him around.
Plus, I just kinda miss the knucklehead. It hasn't even been a whole hour and I already miss him.
