Requesting!

Good Morning.
This week at the Autism Treatment Center of America we have a 6 year old Autistic boy.

He has blond hair and the cutest cheeks! He loves playing with his Dad and does yoga like poses in the mirror, and an interesting dance moving his fingers and then wrapping his arm over his head and giving his cheek a little slap.

I take my hat off to him for his desire to learn to talk. He is trying so hard and yesterday was talking none stop. A lot of what he is saying is hard to understand but if you listen carefully enough the word we are asking him to say is usually embedded in the middle of his sounds, as clear as day.

The interesting thing about this little boy is that we will be in the middle of a bubble game with him, he is waiting patiently for us to blow a bubble and smile hugely when we do, then when we request the word bubble, he will look away from us, sometimes move away a little, and then a few seconds later say a really good approximation of the word. At first glance it looks like he is moving away from the request, but really he is doing what he needs to do the concentrate and achieve what we are asking from him.

So give your child the benefit of the doubt and whenever you request something from them, believe with all of your heart that no matter what they do next it is their attempt to do what you are asking from them, even if it looks at first to be the opposite.

Have a great day everyone!