Elijah gaining independence

Hi we are the Klinkenberg’s.

We are a family of 6, with our eldest child Elijah as our resident “CHARGER.” As you can imagine, Elijah is the apple of his three younger sisters eyes. He has four “mothers” to watch out for him and a Dad that is very glad he has Elijah as a Son! Elijah is 14 years old and attends Tauranga special school in New Zealand. He loves school a lot and is currently learning how to trace his name. Perhaps his favourite activity of all time is swimming. He has always loved water play and, for a long time, could only dream of jumping in to a pool because of the trachy tube he lived with. Elijah had a tracheostomy put in at only 2 months old and it stayed in until he was 12! Two years ago we were able to have it removed - this was one of the most life changing things for Elijah and our family! We all got to hear his voice for the very first time. Now he gets to jump into the school pool every Friday with the other kids in his class. Talk about finding his happy place.

One of the main things Elijah is working on in school is how to communicate in a way where people outside of his family will understand him. Sign language and pictures were introduced at a young age, but he has never really taken to them and would much rather drag me to the kitchen, pushing and pulling me to the right place, and putting my hand on exactly what it is that he wants haha.

As you can tell, Elijah has developed his own form of “communication” to let us know what he wants and doesn’t want. It’s still pretty limited but he is creating new ways to instruct us and help us understand him every day. As for his hearing aide - let’s just say he’s the master of pulling it out, putting it in its case, and walking it right back to the cupboard.

A huge area of growth for Elijah has been in regards to his independence. He will now get his own spoon and bowl out and choose the food that he wants from the fridge. He also loves a tidy bench and clean dishes - something I’m very proud of as his mother haha.

Elijah has come a long way in his 14 years, he is fun, cheeky, energetic, very kind and soft hearted - we wouldn’t have it any other way.