He had play group and Autism Education yesterday. Play group was pretty rocky at first- he wandered around outside not making eye contact or listening to anyone. Not being destructive or anything, just not engaged. The teacher thought that if I went and did something fun with other kids, Little Bug might join in. I began to do elaborate chalk drawings of Little Bug's favorite fish- octopus, shark, angel fish, and Nemo- or BO! as Little Bug says. Well, I had the other 19 children from both classes around me, but not Little Bug. Eventually, he came out of his funk and was able to settle in once we moved inside. His teacher wonders if he is "too smart" to play outside- basically she thinks he gets bored with the lack of challenge- physical and mental- and withdraws. My answer- what are we going to do about it?
Autism Education happens at our house on Mondays. His teacher came over bringing lots of puzzles and a baby doll. It was interesting to watch Little Bug begin to pretend with the baby. Unfortunately, the puzzles tanked- they were too easy. His teacher says that she is keeping really busy because of Little Bug- she has had to buy new supplies for class because he is advancing in areas like matching, memory sequences, and puzzles much quickly than any of her other students.
We took our wonderful dog Frank to the vet yesterday for shots. They both did good and we hurried home.... only to find that we left GREEN SHARK at the vet- queue Halloween theme and meltdown screams. GREEN SHARK is currently Little Bugs favorite toy- he carries it everywhere and constantly chews it. He has an identical shark that is pink, but apparently, that one is no good and *only* GREEN SHARK will do. So Little Bug didn't want us to leave, but also did not want to leave himself. We ended up all leaving- after a 30 minute meltdown about his shoes. We rescued GREEN SHARK and Little Bug did the funniest thing. He walked to the center of the waiting room, held the shark over his head, and yelled SHARK! The entire office- including vets and staff- clapped for him. It was the funniest thing ever.
I am hoping that things will even out here soon. It has been a really tough few days and honestly, we need a break- for us and for Little Bug. He has been biting himself a lot in the past few days. He has also been pretty aggressive towards me, DN, and Frank. I want so desperately to help- I just wish I knew how.
Little Bug has a few new words- spoken and sign:
Spoken-
Baby
Sign-
Grandma
Grandpa
We realized something else this weekend- Little Bug has no way of identifying himself and also doesn't seem to realize that the person in the mirror is him. He will stand in front of the mirror and sign to himself and laugh. If you tell him that its him, he usually says no and then goes into a diatribe in his made up language. I am sure it is a musing of genius- I just can't understand.
After yesterdays Autism Education class, we have new things to work on:
- Safety Directions- Kinda like red light green light, but when you are walking in public. Little Bug loves it and hopefully it will reinforce STOP! as he knows no fear and is a runner.
- Stranger safety- he has taken the human connection part of his teaching a bit too far. He has been trying to hold hands with strangers- which is terrifying as all it would take is one person to see that opportunity and be gone with him. We are going to create social stories with pictures and try to teach him who is "safe" and who is not without warping his little mind forever.
- ID Bracelet- we are working on getting him to wear an ID bracelet as he can't say his name, that he is lost, or that he needs help- other than sign language which most people don't understand. Yesterday, he wore it for 5 minutes before he took it off- which is a vast improvement.
Wish us luck. I have to be honest, at times I feel like I am tinkering around in an area that myself and everyone us have very little understanding of.
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