Autism Therapy: imagination

            I met with Thomas’ teachers (old and new) on Tuesday morning.  As I predicted, there wasn’t really much to say because the old teacher didn’t have much information and neither did the new one.  We had a nice time chatting for a while and they both had encouraging things to say about Thomas’ progress so far this year.  His teacher enjoys having him in class and feels that he fits in very well with the other kids.  He’s had to go back to sitting in a cube chair during circle time as opposed to sitting on the floor as he had been doing.  Apparently he was a little too fidgety on the floor.  He knows the letters in his name and can write the letter “T.”  I also got to see pictures of Thomas playing with a mound of shaving cream – something he wouldn’t have even thought about doing a year ago!  That was one of his goals from last year, too – playing with messy things.  The teacher told met that she has a hodge podge-type class – there are a couple normally developing kids, some with speech delays and then some high-functioning autistic children.  Their hope is that the kids with delays will learn from the typical kids.  I think it’s cool that Thomas is in a class with some “normal” kids.  Hopefully, this will help prepare him for possibly spending some part of his day in kindergarten in a mainstream classroom. 

We will have the opportunity for a conference again in January so I’ll be looking forward to that one a little bit more.  I’m disappointed that I couldn’t get more information out of this first conference because we always look forward to it.  Jonathan couldn’t come anyway because it was during work hours.

            Thomas has really needed the sensory input lately.  Especially at night I’ve noticed that he has a really hard time settling down and being calm.  After he’s had his medicine he calms down a little but right before dinner to right after his bath he’s a ball of noise and energy.  Usually a good rubdown helps tremendously.  He’s been clapping his hands very loudly and doing some hand-flapping lately too which is odd to me.  I thought that hand-flapping would have presented itself a lot earlier in Thomas since that is a fairly common self-stimulation behavior.  I think that the hand clapping is Thomas trying to imitate me since I clap my hands to get the kid’s attention sometimes.  He must like the noise because he claps as loud as he can rapidly many times before somebody (usually me) asks him to stop.  He has been talking a lot lately and asking what printed words say.  He’ll point to the light switches and the knobs on the stove where it says “Off” and ask what it says.  He knows exactly what it says but apparently likes to hear me say it.  I know that he most likely will recognize words rather than read them and sound them out (at least at first).  I’m pretty sure he recognizes the word “off” by now.  Thomas has also shown an increased interest in books.  His teacher said that they have individual book time every day and that Thomas will sit on the floor and look at a book for several minutes which she said was really great in terms of attention span. 

They’re doing a “pet store” unit at school right now.  I got to see what the kids have set up in the classroom and how they play with it.  Thomas has emerging interactive play skills.  He still engages in parallel play but is beginning to interact and ask questions when he’s playing alongside others. 

Thomas has a great imagination, too!  He was reading a Clifford (The Big Red Dog) book last week and his teacher asked what he was reading.  He said, “I’m reading Clifford, but I gave him a new name.  His name is Kobe.”  The teacher had read a book she wrote about her dogs’ trip to the pet store and one of her dog’s names is Kobe.  She thought is was cute that he remembered that and wanted to make it a part of the book he was reading.

Thomas’ last teacher was in on the conference too (sort of at my request just so I could gather as much info as possible) and she said again that she loved having Thomas in her class and was sorry to give him up but knew that he needed the higher-functioning class to really get the social interaction he seems to want so much.  She said that when she sees Thomas in the halls, he says “hi” to her and says, “I’m going this way, okay?” or “We’re going outside now!”  He just gives her a heads-up to let her know what’s going on and she thinks it’s very funny.  Thomas is sort of a regular at that school now since he’s been there for two years and everyone knows him.

Over the river and through the woods to my folk’s house we go tomorrow for Thanksgiving.  My pumpkin pies were not the disaster they might have been had I attempted to make my own crust.  Most people are either a cook or a baker.  I am a baker for sure, but one thing I cannot seem to get the hang of is the elusive flaky and buttery pie crust.  Mine always end up crumbly.  Or they’re too small; I can’t roll them out big enough but still thick enough.  Or they crack and end up dry and tasting like dust.  So I found those amazing little refrigerated piecrusts and went to town.  I’ve officially given up on making my own crusts.

Thomas is excited to be eating turkey tomorrow and has been wishing everyone a Happy Thanksgiving.  He said it to his bus driver on Friday without any prompting or urging from me.  He must have heard someone else say it on the bus before he came home, but still!  It was very cute.  I got Hayley to try some extra (cooked) pie filling but Thomas would have none of it.  I can’t blame him.  Really, pumpkin pie filling doesn’t look too appetizing on its own.  Grainy-looking orangey-brown lumpiness.  But it was tasty!  And Hayley seemed to enjoy it.  I’m sure that I can interest them in the whipped cream if nothing else.

Happy Thanksgiving!