For this little boy, Kaden Myers is a playmate. He is no different. This is what deeply touched his mother, Katie Myers. Kaden is a 1-year-old child with spinal muscular atrophy, a genetic disease that causes muscle deterioration. He uses a wheelchair and cannot make certain gestures.
While traveling in South Florida, Kaden and his family visited the science museum as well as an aquarium. Because of his illness, he couldn’t play during the interactive exhibits. Another boy, seeing him in difficulty, spontaneously came to help him. Then he played with him. As with any other little boy, never mind sickness or difference.
Hope for the future
Moved, Katie Myers immortalized this moment with a photo that she then posted on a Facebook account dedicated to her son. She added a message where she thanks “the little boy at the science museum (…) for being awesome”.
Faced with the enthusiasm that her post aroused, more than 246,000 likes and 57,000 shares, the young mother told the American Huffington Post that this gesture had “gave her hope for the future”. “It sounds so cliché but it made me think about how one person can really change the world, and how they manage to spark these kinds of conversations that can change the way people think,” she told the media.
What she wants is that all children act in this way with people with reduced mobility. Let them see them as children and don’t stop at disability. That they are inspired by the “little boy at the science museum”.
>> To read also:
Disabled dolls in playgrounds
“The hero is you”: the interactive game to relax hospitalized children
Lego wants to encourage young girls to pursue scientific careers
