A chance for your special loved one to have some great fun and “inspire” his able peers! Read this “awesome” story about how a 10 y/o developmentally delayed child “did his best”, and in the process did much better than all of his peers. Your special child could do this too!
I am Cameron’s father and the cubmaster of a Den of five boys all around 10 years old. This story is about Cameron understanding what “doing his best” truly means, and then having something amazing happen because of doing his best.
I was a concerned father as I taught my son the cubscout promise. I knew that Cameron must say the promise, and meet this basic standard to get his “Bobcat” badge. The badge that allows him to get other awards and badges. It took hours of practice at home, in the car, while eating, while playing and during practically every activity to string this one sentence together. The first part was easy, and he could get to the 5th word “promise” before stopping. He was at least putting a considerable amount of inflection and meaning into the word “promise” as he struggled to go further. I went to great lengths to explain “to do my best”. Cameron finally understood this concept, and then repeated the phrase up to “best”, 9 words, I was ecstatic! Cameron was now understanding the concept of “doing his best” while learning the longest thing he had ever said. He then also got the concept of helping other people and that he was making a solemn pledge to do so. This motivated him even more and then after 5 weeks, we were both very proud when he said the entire sentence! He still had just over 2 weeks to learn “the law of the pack”, which was similar in length. With his new success at speaking an entire and very important sentence, he doubled his efforts and learned how to say the law. The night came when all the boys would have to recite the promise, I was nervous, Cameron would be last. The first boy stood up, said a few words, stumbled, mumbled, said he didn’t know it and sat down. After his first mistake, Cameron stared intently at him, no longer fearful of his turn. A look of disbelief and amazement was on Camerons face. Cameron was realizing he knew and could do, something better than the other boy. A first! Cameron was spellbound as this same scenario of mumbling and fumbling, went on with each boy, as none of them had “done their best” to learn the promise. Cameron stood up, the only one in uniform, saluted smartly and said his promise perfectly, with pride, meaning and no mumbling! The other boys were silent and it was their turn to stare. Next was the law of the pack, the same thing happened except this time Cameron was giddy and on the edge of his seat but still intently gazing at the other boys failing in the task that should be so easy for them. Cameron once again stood up and showed them how it should be done. After this success Cameron and I took a considerable amount of time learning how to tie a bowline. Cameron became my assistant instructor as we taught all the cubscouts and the parents how to tie this knot. Cameron was able to watch and feel pride for a whole hour as kids and parents both fumbled with the skill needed to tie this knot. Another boost of confidence for Cameron! This time for a whole hour! By doing his best, something amazing happened for Cameron. He had a feeling of being an equal to his peers and not always on the bottom. This level of confidence and pride stayed with Cameron and showed in other areas of learning. His patience for learning and staying on task had been re-inforced with this all too important social reward. Cameron had worked hard and this hard work gave him the wish he had always desired, he was now “one of the pack”.
FAST scouts has a mission to teach challenged scouts so that when they visit other scouts at camps and events, they will have “something” that puts them on top and gives them a confidence booster, just like Cameron.
The Navigator Teams are a project of Parent to Parent of Georgia under the guidance of the Parent Leadership Coalition (PLC). P2PGA.org