The Art of Conversation Not Lost Thanks to Two 九州娱乐官网 Students

Two student-athletes team up off the field to further one young man's conversational 技能.

九州娱乐官网 students Erik Parry and Kain Domenech have much in common. 这两个 are juniors, both play Varsity Lacrosse, and both make daily phone calls to Gabriel, a local man who is on the autism spectrum, in an effort to help extend his conversational 技能.

The teammates began building a relationship with 34-year-old Gabriel in November 2021, after a request to get involved with this family was circulated to all team captains 通过学院的学生体育咨询委员会(SAAC). 当被 lacrosse captain, both Parry and Domenech agreed immediately, largely based on one more commonality – both have older brothers who have disabilities, and therefore they understood the benefits, and also saw an opportunity to do some good.

The objective for Parry and Domenech was pretty straightforward – to get Gabriel to 通过每天和他们打电话来扩展他的对话技巧.

“The goal is to get Gabriel to not just tell us what he’s doing, watching or listening to, but to get him to go into more detail and be more descriptive,” said Domenech, a native of Severna Park, MD, who calls Gabriel every evening during the week. “So if we talk about a sporting event, we’re trying to get him to tell us who scored a touchdown or a homerun, what the final score was, or where the game was played. If it’s a show, maybe it’s who’s the bad guy, what’s happening to the main characters, 诸如此类. 而是鼓励加布里尔进一步解释.”

And the need was real, as the pandemic caused a loss of routine and much-needed social 加布里埃尔刺激. 结果，他开始撤退，主要转向掩护 time – TV shows, movies, podcasts – as his sole source of stimuli. “他真的是。 left with no opportunity to exercise the social 技能 that are so important,” said Sandra, Gabriel’s mother, explaining that while he is on the autism spectrum, he has 一直都很健谈，善于交际. 与世隔绝对他没有好处.

“We thought that if we could find one or two people who could call him regularly for just a few 分钟 and discuss with him things that he’s interested in, that it would 要真正有益，”她说. 正是通过这些日常通话，帕里和多梅内克 are encouraging him to extend the details of his narratives, while also offering friendship.

“凯恩和埃里克的表现超出了我们的预期，”她补充说. “他们俩都明白了 学习如何和他进行真正的对话.他们各自的电话也包括他的 day, building social interactions into his routine, which is important to him, and 减少看屏幕的时间.

“It sounds simplistic, but we really wanted Gabriel to have some guy friends, and Erik and Kain have provided that,” said Brandon, Gabriel’s father. “他想说出来 somebody what he’s watching or about the podcast he listened to, and we want him to 除了他父母还有人可以倾诉吗.”

Connecting Gabriel with college students was his mother’s idea.  “我只是觉得我们 have the College right here, and this could be a really easy way for a couple of students 参与进来，”切斯特顿居民桑德拉说. 妮可，她和 family to coordinate Gabriel’s activities, handled the rest, reaching out to the Office 我去学生事务处看看能安排些什么. 在任何一个学生伸出手之前 to Gabriel, they were first interviewed by Nicole and then introduced to the whole family via Zoom.

These daily conversations between Gabriel, Kain and Erik typically focus on shows, 播客，或者体育赛事. 每个人都试着让他至少讲10分钟， 虽然这需要时间.

“At the beginning it was mostly us getting to know each other,” explained Parry, a 西棕榈滩，佛罗里达州居民. “很多时候，这些电话只会持续几次 分钟.  If I asked Gabriel something that he didn’t want to talk about, he’d just 说“好的，明天再聊”，然后挂断电话.”

Domenech’s early experience with the evening call was similar but given their family histories, said he and Parry were both prepared to put in the time needed to win Gabriel 在. “It was a trust thing and we knew it would take a bit, but once he realized we weren’t going away, he finally opened up and now it’s just rapid fire.”

Parry noted that they have also adjusted their approach, knowing that sometimes he 我会尽量早点结束这个电话吗. “现在我知道该说，‘嘿，首先我想听更多 about the podcast you listened to today,’ instead of letting him just shut it down.”

Sandra has also been impressed with how the students have adapted and figured out 怎样才能最好地达到延长对话的目的. “凯恩发现这是 better to let Gabriel talk first and report on what he’s done that day, and then he will go back and pick up threads for further conversation,” she said.

Gabriel’s parents are seeing progress as a result of these interactions, and also 注意，他似乎更快乐了. “每天与凯恩和埃里克交谈对加布里埃尔有好处， but Kain and Erik also seem engaged and I think they are getting their own satisfaction 从这种关系中解脱出来，”桑德拉说道.

Parry and Domenech couldn’t agree more, and both are hoping to continue the relationship with Gabriel beyond the end of this academic year because the phone calls are something 他们喜欢并期待着.

“Initially the reason we both wanted to do this was to help out, because we know from personal experience that it can be a tough situation,” said Domenech. “加布里埃尔的父母 thought it might be a burden for us, calling every day, but it’s the least we can 是因为我们都知道他们面临的挑战吗. 他们都是很棒的人 加布里埃尔也很棒.”

“帮助加布里埃尔是我们的第二天性，”帕里附和道. “这是一个机会 fell into my lap and it’s great because it’s something that I really care about, which is having a positive impact on someone within the disability community here on the 海岸.  这是一个做得更好的机会.”

“The boys have gone above and beyond what we asked them to do,” Sandra said. “我们正 我对他们做的事很满意.”