To the unfamiliar eye, it isn't apparent that Josh has ASD, for which I am very thankful. It only becomes clearer when you can watch him over a period of time and know the signs. The kid LOVES patterns. That is why he could count so high and knew the entire alphabet by the age of two, and why he can memorize books. It also means that he is a very lineal thinker and I have to constantly guide him.
Here is a classic example of what Josh does when playing. For his birthday he got a set of balls and a hoop that suction cups to the glass door. We put it up and showed him how to put the little basket ball through the hoop. He was delighted by this (ah, the age where we can get away cheap toys) and after dunking the ball a couple time, I asked him "What about that one?" and pointed to his new set of balls: a blue basket ball, a red soccer ball and a green foot ball. Then I sat back and watched what he would do.
Josh ran across the room, said "what about this one?" in his babble talk, grabbed the blue basketball and then dunked it. He then watched where the ball landed and when it was still, ran over and got the red ball (saying "what about this one", dunked, watched it until it stopped and then did the same with the green football. Then Josh grabbed the green football, ran back across the room and placed it back into the cardboard container he had taken it out of. This was followed by the red ball, then the blue ball, running back and forth each time. Then he started in again with the basket ball and after it was still, ran over and got the blue basket ball and dunked it. If any of the balls rolled out of the little area he was playing in (the linoleum around where the door swings in) then he would grab the ball and place it back on the smooth floor. Dunk basketball, run and get blue ball, dunk, get red ball, dunk, get green ball, put away in the reserve order, including saying "What about this one" whenever he'd go get a ball to dunk it.
Josh did this eleven times before I finally stopped him, interrupting the routine to show him how he could dunk other things, like stuffed animals. He was incredibly resistant to any changes. Normally I don't let him repeat a pattern more than three times, but this time I was just observing how long he would keep going.
That was a very complex pattern and he never once deviated the order or color of the balls. It's an ASD thing for kids to think that there is just one way of doing things. Even now, after I let him reinforce that pattern eleven times, Josh really won't put anything in the hoop besides those four balls.
It's really fascinating how his little brain works.
2 comments:
that is interesting. you said you don't usually let he repeat a pattern more than three times, is there a reason for that? just curious. I don't really know much about ASD.
I try not to let him go more than three times otherwise he gets it cemented in his head that the pattern is the only way to play with the object. For example, I can't really get him to play with the basketball hoop now with anything other than putting the balls through in that pattern which was reinforced 11 times.
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