Moving on From a Chair

One of the few pieces of equipment we've needed and used for James to help with his Autism Spectrum Disorder needs is this chair:

    

This chair was ordered by his North Bay Regional Center case manager for James when he was just over 2, when he was first being evaluated and diagnosed with some pretty severe developmental delays. We've used it every day in this house up until this past weekend -- that's 5 years of togetherness. It became almost like a member of our family.

This chair was awesome, because we could snap James into a 3-point harness, which kept him in his seat (he'd wriggle or fall off a regular chair and was too large for a high chair). The footrest was helpful to keep his feet still at meals and ground him for homework sessions. The seat itself was adjustable, and there were a couple of years where we'd be adjusting that sucker every month or so.

It had its down sides; for a while it got used for Time Outs, until James started to not want to use the chair at all.  We've all suffered painful whacks to our toes on it's splayed legs. Lately, James has gotten too big to sit comfortably on it. It was time to give it back to the Regional Center, for another family to use.

So that is what we did on Tuesday. James said goodbye to the chair and patted it. I loaded it into the van, and we dropped it back off at the Regional Center.  While I dislike saying goodbye to another piece of James' younger years, it also feels good to be giving back.