Nathaniel’s personality is coming through more and more. One of his friends says that he was always a quiet guy who listened to everything that people said and knew more than he let on. He seems the same now. He smiles at jokes that others make and smiles when he gently teases someone else. When asked questions, he is not always accurate with his responses, and often just responses to every question the same way rather than making the effort to answer properly. He has a range of emotions. Most days he is really happy, but some days he is sad. He has a sad face that I recognize. He can’t tell me what is making him sad, so I try to guess what we just talked about or who just visited and talk about that. I tell him that it’s okay to be sad sometimes.
When he is interested in something that someone is saying, he looks intensely at that person. He seems to like to listen to in-person Torah lessons. Videos are less interesting. He does recognize people on video chats, though.
He doesn’t see well on his right side so he has to turn his head so he can see better. We hung a ball of a string and push it toward him so that he has to catch it. We hope this will help his eyes to work together more so that he will have a wider field of vision. We also use a flashlight and ask him to follow with his eyes.
His aide asked if he wanted to put on his Tefillin. Nathaniel gave the biggest smile. He raises his arm and puts it through the loop of the Tefillin and then moves it up and down to help get the straps on.
Now that corona restrictions have lifted, we hope to take him out more and invite move visitors.