ABSTRACT
The teacher leads the boy to the mat. He takes off his shoes. Then he takes off his socks. He begins walking a circle around the outer edge of the mat. I watch him closely and quietly. He lifts his elbows, pressing his thumbs rhythmically into his ears. He utters a stream of vowels and light consonants. I listen, feel the resonance of his sound in my body, and join him exploring the same sounds with my own throat and breathing. Then I lie down in the center of the mat on my back, the boy walking around me, occasionally peering down at me from the corner of his eye. I don’t know why I lay down this way. I question it for a moment, but somehow it feels right. As the boy circles me, slowly his orbit comes closer. I gently extend my hand and follow his curving path. The next time around he lightly encircles my fingers with his and continues circling, but a little slower now. Then he comes right in and stands on my chest, holding both of my hands and looking down at me. I breathe. He rises and falls. I begin making sound with my breath. Has and hos and oos. Suddenly laughter bursts from me. His feet and knees soften, his toes grip my chest. He begins to bounce on my breath and my laugh. He watches me closer. Then he returns to his circling walk, still lightly holding my hand. Then right back on my chest, making his own sounds while bouncing gently. The two of us exchanging sound through his feet. A moment later he curls down into my lap. I sit up and wrap around him closely. He pushes his head into the crook of my elbow. I mirror the intensity of his curling and pushing with the pressure and firmness of my touch. After several cycles of nuzzling, curling in, and pushing, he relaxes, looks me clearly in the face, and we begin a round of squirming, close in, gentle play, scooching around the mat, swirling close around, over and under each other. Then he settles down against my body, gently touching my arm, my face, the back of my head. Then, clear as a bell, we’re done playing. He gets up, puts his socks and shoes on, and returns to class with his teacher. Usually, this boy does not want to leave the play mat and will collapse in a slithering pile, but today he goes easily, calmly. Later, the teacher tells me that this boy had been having a tough morning. He was agitated and was being aggressive with his body and his touch. Walking to the play session, the boy repeatedly reached over to the teacher, pinching and scratching him. After the play session, the teacher reported that they walked quietly back to class, the boy reaching over to gently touch the teacher’s arm and hold his hand. (M. Otto, personal communication, February 19, 2011)
