Bring on the DRAMA

Most of you already know that my Dom was diagnosed with Aspergers Syndrome when he was 2 years old. When a parent hears this diagnosis you either accept the diagnosis, are against it, in denial or in the acceptance/denial stage. For about most of Dom's life i was in the acceptance/denial stage. 

Yes i realize that this is something that Dom has and will live with but that my child can do anything that other children do! We got through preschool and kindergarten and through about half of his elementary years. Academically he did ok and socially he has friends which is great for any aspie and also great for the mom who is constantly in denial by her little sunshine's disability. But by going through the years this mom was always sad to see his friends being achievers in sports and clubs and my son having to struggle or not really giving a sh&*. We tried sports and well he didn't really care for them or excel at it. We even tried karate but well he didn't really care for that either. The sensei would yell at the kids to do their kata and well Dom always did it on "Dom time", which really meant s-l-o-w-l-y, so he basically got yelled at the whole 45 minutes each week. We also did art classes which he did and kind of enjoyed but he isn't a Picasso by any means.

This past year we were asked by a friend to try a drama class by Drama Kids. At first i was like, ok, here we go, another class that i need to drag Dom to where he will be "ok" at. After his first class i asked Dom what he thought and he said, it was AMAZING, i had so much fun!!! So I immediately signed him up and we tried it out. This program is phenomenal for us and for Dom. It gave Dom self confidence, made him comfortable enough to be his true self and made him happy. Throughout the next 7 months or so Dom started acting in class and then here we were at the end of the year performance at the EGG in Albany. I was a nervous wreck! What if he froze? What if he forgot his lines? What if he cried because he forgot his lines? 

Well boy was i wrong! Dom did not forget his lines, he was funny and adorable and happy. That whole day we saw a Dom that we hadn't seen in a while. He was genuinely happy, stress free and confident. It filled my heart with so much happiness that i couldn't even sit still for one minute. This is the Dom that i have always wanted to peek out and i owe it all to Drama Kids. Cant wait for next year to be here already!!