Lizzie has aged out :(
Lizzie has $15,000 in grants, if you are a loving family, please bring her home!!
Lizzie * 13 years old * blind (has light perception) * not verbal, but signs and understands others * shared list *
NEW UPDATE – September 2018
“Lizzie turned 13 this summer! She only has one more year for her forever family to find her! Lizzie is a beautiful and sweet girl who has lived at Bethel for 9 years and we just can’t bear the thought of her aging out! Lizzie has some light perception, is on the autism spectrum and is one of the most affectionate people you’ll ever meet! While she’s nonverbal, she’ll take your hand and guide you towards snuggles or tickles and knows some basic sign language such as “eat”, “more” and “bathroom”. She can get dressed by herself, go to the bathroom, and knows her schedule.
Lizzie is such a joy to have in our Bethel family and I know she’d bring so much love and joy to a forever family.” Please help spread the word about Lizzie before it’s too late!”
Lizzie has a $10,000 grant on Reece’s Rainbow to go toward her adoption!
“Lizzie is 10 years old and loves listening to music and playing on the playground (especially the swings or the slide). She also loves to cuddle and to give hugs. She is on the autism spectrum, but is doing well in school and she likes her teachers and her classes. She does not communicate verbally, but after one year of weekly speech therapy she communicates in sign and understands what people are saying to her. She has light and dark perception (she can see light). She likes to put her hand in front of her face and cast shadows in the sunshine. Her self-help skills are
improving too! She can put on her shoes and clothes and feed herself. She can navigate the school very well and she knows how to get from her house to the school and to classrooms within the building. She also loves to play one-on-one with a friend.”
January 2015 Lizzie and Rupert
November 2015
“Lizzie just loves giving hugs! She loves to be cuddled and sang to. We think that Lizzie is somewhere on the autism spectrum, but she has greatly improved since starting in the special needs class at Bethel. She had speech therapy for a year and learned how to sign for basic things. She find her way around Bethel on her own and she understan
ds what people say to her. She loves to play with tactile toys.” – Bethel
September 2015
May 2015
“Lizzie is a beautiful girl who loves listening to music and being tickled.Lizzie is on the autism spectrum and attends our special needs class, which means she has a lot of one-on-one teaching and therapy time and she has learnt some signs to express her needs. She also loves to make shadows and play with the light” – Bethel
April 2015
“Sweet Lizzie can always be found with her face towards the light. She has made a lot of improvements at school, and we’re very proud of her.Lizzie is paper ready for adoption and would love to have a family!” – Bethel
January 2015
“For the first few years Lizzie was at Bethel, she would often cry and did not want to do anything for herself. When she started school, her teachers decided that they would be extremely determined and not give up on her, even though it was easier to let her do what she wanted to do. For months, they patiently led her around the school and she began to have orientation and mobility classes on her own. She still cried a lot, but the teachers would all give one another encouragement to keep going or they would swap duties to spend more time with Lizzie.
Their hard work has paid off in an amazing way! Lizzie has learned to walk by herself and make her own way to her classroom and house, she can feed and dress herself, she has learned to communicate through signs, and she is happy in her classroom.
As a reward for good behaviour and perseverance in her classes, Lizzie is allowed to sit in the sun, which is her favorite place to be in the world. We love this photo TAP took as it perfectly fits the place where she is most content. We’re so proud of Lizzie and we know that with hard work she will continue to learn.
Lizzie is a ‘waiting child’, which means she has all the necessary adoption paperwork ready to be adopted, but she is waiting for a family!”
May 2014
“Light/dark perception refers to whether a person with a visual impairment can tell the difference between light and dark.
Beautiful (Lizzie) is our little sunflower! She has a clouded cornea on her right eye and she cannot see out of her left eye. She loves to stand in the sun and cast shadows on her face with her hand. Any time that she has free play time, she will always find an activity to do close to the window so that she can sit in the sunshine.
Children who can tell the difference between light and dark are able to orient themselves in a room quite easily as they can tell where the window is. They also often have an easier time sleeping as they are able to form a sleep rhythm based on day time and night time.” – Bethel
September 2013
“(Lizzie) is a little girl is our special needs class who does not communicate verbally. In recent months, she has made amazing strides in learning ways to communicate through sign language.
Here, her teacher is showing her how to stroke the horse. She was calm, happy and willing to listen to her teacher in this safe environment. In this way, she can build up trust with the horse and eventually ride it. We are excited to see how she gets on!”
“Sometimes you have to get really creative to get around cognitive or motor difficulties. The role of an SLP is to work together with caregivers to address a child’s communication difficulties and needs, create opportunities for the child to successfully communicate, and provide alternative communication methods if needed. At Bethel, our special education team created our own “signs” or gestures after discussing what sort of hand movements certain kids could successfully learn. These kids have not been able to learn speech, but are willing to use their hands to communicate. Although Lizzie cannot use the muscles of her mouth to say, “teacher,” she can clearly sign it the Bethel way! She looks like she is pledging her allegiance to communication therapy as she does it.” – Bethel
“Another important aspect of communication therapy is building in repetitions when a child learns a new skill, such as a new word, phrase, grammar skill, or social communication skill.
This is known as “drills,” which means practicing the same thing over and over and over…
Sounds boring? Only if you make it boring!
Here, Lizzie has been practicing the sentences, “Teacher, I want more cookies/games,” for over 30 minutes, and she thinks the whole thing is super fun!”
