Monday, June 26, 2017

You're Gonna Miss This

Pervasive Parenting
By Kodey Toney
You're Gonna Miss This
It just hit me today another breakthrough we've had with Konner that I've probably missed and am just now noticing. It's because over the years it has just evolved and become something I wouldn't have thought of if Jen had not pointed it out to me.
When doing trainings with parents and educators I talk about parallel play. This is one of the signs we look for in children on the autism spectrum.
This is when children walk up beside their peers and begin to play with the same toys, but never really interact with the person next to them. They may even go so far as to imitate them, but rarely ever talk to them.
The example I give is when Konner was in head start he would walk up to a little girl playing at the block station. You could tell that he wanted to interact with the girl, but there was no way he was going to actually talk to her. He would mock her motions and build similar things.
There is a common misconception
With children on the spectrum that they want to be alone. However, this has been proven to be untrue. They just lack the social and language skills.
So that brings me to today. I was listening to a conversation in the next room with Konner and Kruz. Konner actually asked Kruz if he would play with him. I know this may not seem like much to some, but looking back at eight years ago he would have never asked anyone to play with him. Heck, he could barely talk then.
He came in the other day and asked if I wanted to play trains with him. I of course did, because I know this is something that he couldn't do before.
It wasn't really that big of a deal at the time because he has been doing it a little while, but it snuck up on me. To think I almost missed it.

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