Remembering Project Bow from A Decade Ago

In the early years of Project Bow, we used to put out an annual DVD in which we chronicled our methods, successes, challenges and hopes for the future. The 2005 Project Bow DVD was the first of these.

The 2005 Project Bow DVD

In those days, I would work with Bow tirelessly all day long, then edit the video in the evenings. As this was our first DVD, then opening sequences were both instructive and lyrical, prospective and retrospective.

If you want detailed information of our earlier methodology, including things that did not work for us, such as the EasyTalk device, and how we eventually settled on printed menus, then the next section can be illuminating. on the other hand, if you are easily bored, you might want to skip this part, as it lacks dramatic tension.

The next part introduces the program that was instituted when Bow turned three, including the menus instead of templates, the Floortime sessions and the internship program.

Part Four continues with Floortime methodology.

As the Fall internship comes to a close, there is some manifest success, as when Bow spontaneously uses his words to invite a stranger to play, but also some dramatic conflict, as Bow attempts to display rather than simply say "No" to an offer of play.

The interns sum up their accomplishments, and then it is time for Sword to engage Bow in play using the Hebrew lexigrams. The very final part of the 2005 DVD features the music of Bettine Clemen, and has me summing up the real problem: that Bow is such a great non-verbal communicator that he sometimes does not see the point of using his words.

The closing credits of the 2005 DVD are my favorite part, as we watch Sword and Bow playing together, both outside and indoors. Do you recognize some of the scenery from my walks? This is the same place we are living in now, but so much has changed. It is not just that Sword and Bow have grown up, but also that new trees have sprouted up in the field behind us, and now we have a much better environment for the local wildlife.

Bow holding up the 2005 Project Bow DVD today

As Bow and I look back on ten years of the Project, there is a sense of great accomplishment. Bow had his breakthrough in 2007 and can spell. He is no longer limited to lexigrams. But there is also still much to accomplish, including some way to safely get Bow back outside to roam in the fine natural setting that we have right outside our doors.

For the deer, the borders of our land are marked by the fact that they are not hunted here. But how can we mark the borders for Bow, so that he, too, understands that it is not safe for him to leave the perimeter? By the same token, how do we keep strangers out?

Sometimes I stand on my land, and I look into the adjoining field, and I worry that during hunting season someone could just walk across. I've never seen anyone do that, but it worries me.

It's so beautiful out there in my overgrown pasture. Let's hope we can find a way to make that work for Bow.