It’s almost a given, perhaps, that the Monster doesn’t often engage in “appropriate play”. Like many children with Autism, he’s often more fascinated by parts of things, rather than the thing itself. He’s inclined to sort game pieces or toys by type or color or some trait he’s selected as he might be to play with it in a manner that approaches “appropriate”, but… it’s how things are.
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play
Trouble
One of the Monster’s goals on his IEP is social turn taking, in the context of a game with other children. This isn’t a new goal for him – it was on last year’s IEP, and I think it was on the year prior’s – but this year’s was redefined to be more achievable. Specifically, it allows for more adult guidance/redirects to keep him on target.
Which anyone who plays with kids will tell you is a good and necessary thing.
Hungry, Hungry
R turned four this week.
Almost everything with R is a new experience for us as parents. Yes, yes, I know that all children are different and are going to be somewhat like that anyway, but… the differences between a child with Autism and a child without Autism are night and day. So on Wednesday, after singing happy birthday to R, after cupcakes and giving him a card… he asked where his birthday present was. (Smart kid, our R.) And after a bit of hurrying on the wife’s part to grab something – we’d not planned on giving him a present till his birthday party in a week and a half – he was very excited to unwrap a “Hungry, Hungry Hippos” game.
Kiss Your Robot
I was gone for most of the weekend at one of my bonspiels, so as usual, the kids at least seemed to give some show of having missed me while I was gone. (Now, we all know that they really don’t care, one way or the other, when I’m gone, since they love Mommy more and I’m the disciplinarian. But it’s nice that they pretend. 😉 ) But I returned yesterday evening, and while the wife and I were preparing food in the kitchen, the Monster came wandering in. Continue reading
Play Time!
Like many children with Autism, the Monster has difficulties with playing with other children.
The problem isn’t necessarily a matter of his want to play with other kids – it’s his ability to communicate the want to do it and then to sustain the interactions. He’s had a social goal in this past year’s IEP of play with other children, but most of the time, this has required adult interaction to keep him involved in a game of any sort. Continue reading
Playtime
My wife was out of town from Friday afternoon till about midnight last night, attending a memorial service for a friend’s parent. I stayed behind in Baltimore because we can’t really count on the kids to behave at these kinds of things – R is a rambunctious three year old, and the Monster has his good days and bad. (Plus, hotel.)
The original plan had been that we were going to go up to visit my family, who live about 90 minutes from where the memorial service was, and that I’d have stayed there with the kids while my wife ran to-and-from, but due to timing changes in the service, it was just easier to stay behind in our house. So what’s easier for the kids… Continue reading
Breaking Out of Parallel
Just by the nature of things, the Monster still largely engages in parallel play. This means, when the boys are playing on the floor, they’re generally either trying to play individually with the same toys, or playing off in their own corners. Continue reading