Children with Mental Disabilities Communicate with Universal Language of Laughter

My daughters Lindsay and Megan giggle and cackle at all my minor trials and tribulations.

Ride up to the drive-through and forget the van window won't roll down, there's a giggle from the back. Forget to turn the garage light off and have to retrace my steps, then mirthful grins abound. If I was to fall down and break a leg, they'd probably howl with laughter.

Hopefully, I'll never have to find that out since there is enough to keep them amused already. They even laugh at the noise of the icemaker dropping cubes of ice into the bin. A dead skunk on the side of the road? They titter as the smell stays with us for a mile or more.

And just because the girls have mental disabilities doesn't mean they don't band together at times to gang up on me. They were both horribly ashamed of a pair of flip-flops I used to wear, especially if I threatened to wear them to town. They were probably glad when I wore those out and had to throw them away, but I showed 'em! I wore the new ones proudly - around the house - because they were still ashamed of them. In fact, the only time I wore them in public was when they weren't around to see it.

When they were toddlers they liked to tear up papers and magazines. Maybe that's not unusual for young kids, but they took it to a whole new level, spending hours creating a pile of shredded paper. I guess I should have given them my junk mail to shred instead of throwing it in the trash like people used to do before identity theft became such a problem.

Once I woke up to discover they'd gotten hold of my grocery store coupons-pulled them all out of my coupon envelope and shredded them to bits. As I started to clean up I told them they better stay back and not touch them. And what does Lindsay do? She deliberately sticks one finger out, and very quickly, touches one of the coupons, then draws her hand back, a mischievous grin on her face.

The girls have their own way of communicating, even though Lindsay has a small vocabulary and Megan has a large one. Lindsay has receptive language so she understands everything that is said, she just can't express herself as well. But the tones they use tell what's going on at times. If Megan is ready to leave Grandma's house and go home, she'll ignore everybody else and say, "Hey Lindsay," in a nice, sweet voice. That means she's trying to get Lindsay to say she's ready to go home, too. Lindsay is not going to come out and say she's ready, but if you ask her, she might grab my pocketbook, meaning she's ready to get in the car and go.

I like it when the girls are laughing, because that means they're not fighting, which they're fully capable of doing. So sometimes I fake a trip or do a crazy dance just to keep spirits up. But I don't think I'm ready to break a leg for it.