Monday, November 21, 2011

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

The Ugly:  We had a team meeting on Tuesday that consisted of three therapists and myself discussing Jack's behavior during some of his sessions.  He is very controlling of play, often (but not always) throwing fits whenever people don't play with toys the way he expects them to.  Otherwise he is very compliant, and burning through some of his programs faster than they are used to.  It's good and hard to hear at the same time, because I didn't realize he was that controlling over play, but it does make sense looking back and realizing why he doesn't always cooperate with other kids.  Thankfully, they are used to it and have ways of teaching kids how to play with others.

The Bad:  No matter what people say, or how many kids I see throwing tantrums, it is always difficult to listen to Jack get upset with other people.  There are moments when Jack just absolutely does not want to do whatever is being asked of him, and he lets everyone in hearing distance know.  I know the therapists are used to it and know how to handle it, but it's hard to listen and hard to sit still.  It's even harder when it's not the usual 'I'm not getting what I want' tantrum - it's because someone moved the train the 'wrong way' around the train table.

The Good:  There's really a lot of good!  Jack is much more expressive now than even 6 weeks ago.  It is awesome to hear him tell us what he wants or even what he's thinking about - I did not realize how much he wasn't saying.  I also had the following conversation with him today.  If you know Jack, you can picture how funny this was:

      "Jack, what's your favorite color?"
      "Mmmmm, orange I think."
      "Oh, you like orange a lot?"
      "No, I like orange one!"

He has NEVER been able to tell anyone his favorite color, or favorite anything.  Yesterday, he told one of the therapists his favorite color, and I wanted to see if he would say the same thing again.  It was so cool to hear!!

I read today that there are people diagnosed with Autism that eventually change so much that they no longer meet the criteria for a diagnoses after 2-3 years of therapy.  I hope this is possible for Jack, he has so much to give.

2 comments:

  1. keep your spirit Kelly....if you ever need an ear to listen, please know I am here for you......I love the idea of the Blog...sure wish I would have had done something like this so many years ago when I was in your shoes.....lone behold my girl is now 19yrs. old

    Teresa (Laure's friend)

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  2. I'm so glad you are reading along! Please feel free to share your thoughts and advice!

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