Whenever I am invited to a party or a place where there are other children I always try to make sure that I am SUPER prepared for the event. Now one may think what is the definition of SUPER prepared? Well first there is the mental preparation, all the things that you know will happen but is still awkward....like your child rolling a car on the table instead of playing and interacting with the other children. In your world that is the norm but to everyone else that instantly is a conversation piece. So in that you have to prepare mentally for the round table discussion, followed by questions. So that's okay but then there are the things that may happen that you never would have thought could happen and that is where mental preparation is needed. Secondly you must be armed with your child's motivation bag, and in this bag are all the simple things you use to encourage good behavior and to prevent embarrassing melt downs. Finally there are all the details of preparation for the party, getting dressed, brushing teeth, transitioning from the house to the car, holding hands to walk to the party, adjusting to new people, sounds, and action at the party, whew.......I get exhausted just thinking of it but in these examples you can see just why I call it SUPER prepared. Now that I have you in the frame of mind of the struggles that are always present now let's proceed. Remember how I said that there are things that you know are going to happen, and things that you never thought would happen.......well those things are how I came up with the title of this post, "Stares & Awkward Smiles." Well at the party that I really just had all planned out had a slight bit of unexpectedness. It was the end of the party and the children were very excited to have sung the birthday song and now it was time for yummy cake and ice cream. Everyone received their cupcake and just began to eat and smile and laugh. Well Raymond had another idea in mind...........
He decided that he wanted to smear icing on himself and then make shapes in the icing........too funny right!?
Well this could have been done by any typical two year old right......right! But because none of the other children were doing that and he was already involved in a round table discussion about Autism there were many Stares & Awkward Smiles. So in conclusion I just cleaned him up said Uh-OH and we went on with our day. There will be people who don't understand and as long as I am his mother I will always be sure that the people in my life WILL! I will always be a voice for the Autistic child. For they are very different but NOT LESS!!!!!!
Your little guy could not be cuter. Hopefully the more you see those people the more familiar they'll become with Raymond and the less side-tracked they'll be by his autism. Besides, all the best artists use materials in ways in which they weren't intended. What better way to find out about the world than by seeing what else things can do besides what they were meant for?
ReplyDelete