Gymmie went back to the gym and watched teenagers with autism in a gymnastics class. The kids jumped energetically on the trampoline. Big smiles appeared as their bounces got higher and as they tried new skills. Gymmie noticed that jumping on the trampoline seemed to heighten awareness in these kids. They watched other kids and make more eye contact. Moving on to the vault, one boy runs and jumps on the vault but gets a bit nervous of the height when jumping down. Another boy needs coaxing to run hard towards the vault. The next event was swinging on the rope and the smiles came back as they swung back and forth.  The group also swung on the parallel bars and practiced forward rolls.

Class ended and the boy who had just tried the class for the night, asked his mom, “Gymnastics tomorrow?”.  His mom said “He rarely asks for tomorrow, so I know he liked class”. Gymmie smiled as the smiling kids greeted their parents,  found their shoes in the cubbies, and sat down to put them on.