"Brian's Best Buddy Edition Holiday,"
By Kathryn McNamara
For the last decade at least, holidays were nothing out of the ordinary for me. A time to get together with family and friends. Moments of pure joy as well as glimpses of grief. Do not get me wrong. I always enjoyed the holiday season for the vast majority of it. However, being a part of a family dynamic with disabled family member(s), the holidays can be quite consistent as well as predicable, especially because of my twin brother Brian's ASD. Change could be the catalyst for anxiety. Functions had to be small gatherings at a specific location to not create an antecedent of unpredictable autistic behaviors.
A resource that has been really helpful to my brother and our family during the holidays is Best Buddies. I had always been familiar with the development of Best Buddies as well as their mission to include neurodiverse people into prototypical communities. The background story of Best Buddies was always an interest to me between my love for disability studies as well as the personal passion of Eunice toward her sister Rosemary to begin an evolutionary chain reaction toward the opportunity for inclusion of all individuals with disabilities. My interests come especially from my familiarity with disability from academia, as well as my personal lens on how inclusion of people with developmental disabilities can be such a difficult thing due to the lack of attentiveness as well as interest in many things those like myself can take for granted.
I had learned about Best Buddies more in depth recently and they hosted a holiday party. Brian and I attended together along with his respite who was very helpful! Being in a room of advocacy for all disabled folks for immersed inclusion rather than seclusion was an aspect I sensed Brian enjoyed. He might not be able to express it; however, the presence of us all as well as those similar to him was the most engagement I had seen from him for a long time. Expressions of phrases and uncontrollable smiles were something atypical I noticed in him; he never really seemed engaged in anything outside his own educational realm or familiar faces.
It was wonderful he was so involved in something outside his own program aside from the few familiar faces he interacts with. It has been a great holiday season thus far. Happy holidays everyone! Hope all have a happy holiday season!
By Kathryn McNamara
For the last decade at least, holidays were nothing out of the ordinary for me. A time to get together with family and friends. Moments of pure joy as well as glimpses of grief. Do not get me wrong. I always enjoyed the holiday season for the vast majority of it. However, being a part of a family dynamic with disabled family member(s), the holidays can be quite consistent as well as predicable, especially because of my twin brother Brian's ASD. Change could be the catalyst for anxiety. Functions had to be small gatherings at a specific location to not create an antecedent of unpredictable autistic behaviors.
A resource that has been really helpful to my brother and our family during the holidays is Best Buddies. I had always been familiar with the development of Best Buddies as well as their mission to include neurodiverse people into prototypical communities. The background story of Best Buddies was always an interest to me between my love for disability studies as well as the personal passion of Eunice toward her sister Rosemary to begin an evolutionary chain reaction toward the opportunity for inclusion of all individuals with disabilities. My interests come especially from my familiarity with disability from academia, as well as my personal lens on how inclusion of people with developmental disabilities can be such a difficult thing due to the lack of attentiveness as well as interest in many things those like myself can take for granted.
I had learned about Best Buddies more in depth recently and they hosted a holiday party. Brian and I attended together along with his respite who was very helpful! Being in a room of advocacy for all disabled folks for immersed inclusion rather than seclusion was an aspect I sensed Brian enjoyed. He might not be able to express it; however, the presence of us all as well as those similar to him was the most engagement I had seen from him for a long time. Expressions of phrases and uncontrollable smiles were something atypical I noticed in him; he never really seemed engaged in anything outside his own educational realm or familiar faces.
It was wonderful he was so involved in something outside his own program aside from the few familiar faces he interacts with. It has been a great holiday season thus far. Happy holidays everyone! Hope all have a happy holiday season!
Siblings with a Mission is a non-profit, international organization established to serve and support siblings of individuals with complex health conditions and developmental disabilities. All images are found on Google images and are solely used for educational purposes. The stories and advice provided by Siblings with a Mission are not to be replaced by professional advice and counseling but to be considered as an additional source of support.
