It is no surprise to me but Louis is shitting all over these new assessments his therapists are testing him with. An added bonus is that I am NOT being literal in describing the shitting!
Seriously though, he has made so much progress on his expressive and receptive language. I am beyond proud of him. I feel a lot more confident in his abilities to take on mainstream school - the academic side of things anyway.
There were two things that really stood out for me, as I watched him be tested:
The first was how exhausted he gets processing questions, getting the answer and then expressing it. He takes significant time to process. It is really obvious that he is processing. He goes rigidly still. He often repeats the question in a whisper - a couple of times. His eyes go like crazy over the pictures, as he tries to figure out the answer.
After about ten minutes, his eyes were welling up and he was yawning. His eyes were red and he was rubbing his face and leaning against me when he could. It was amazing to see this little boy, who was bubbling and playing before the test, become so incredibly weary after a few questions. This is something to really keep in mind when I chat to his teachers for next year. I am going to work on tools that Louis can use to have recharge in class.
The other thing that popped out for me, was how incredibly literal he is. I LOVE this about Louis. I love his way of looking at the world. For example, he was insistent that the picture of the cat belonged in the same category as the chair and the table. The reason......"FUR-niture". How brilliant is that!!!!!
I don't think this is something that needs working on. This is a gift of autism as far as I am concerned. It is a unique and straight forward view of the world, that is concrete, practical and less anxiety invoking - less variables. SO, my plan is to keep doing our work on emotional resilience, in the view that if people laugh (I hope delightedly) at his literal comments, he has the ability to be okay with that and see the funny side himself. My husband and I, try to model this by laughing at ourselves all the time. Pointing out when we made a mistake and being okay with it.
Anyway, I have had a slack morning myself. I haven't done the study that I scheduled for myself. Going to try to be emotionally resilient enough not to beat myself up about it. Okay, boring myself now....go on about your business please.....nothing more to read here.
4 comments:
In my book, cats are in the same category as furniture and I'm so glad he wasn't literally shitting all over the assessments.
Those tests - they do my head in. They do isolate a percieved weakness but they make them so huge that that is all you see.
My eldest has a processing problem that comes under the Dyslexic umbrella and she absolutely bombed the test where the child has to say what is missing, so a cat with only 1 ear is missing the other ear etc. Afterwards I asked if she hadn't noticed the missing ear and she told me that she had assumed that the detail would be tiny so she was looking at all the individual lines of hairs of the fur to see if anything was missing. She needs something to compare against, like a spot the difference! Interesting.
The being exhausted by questions thing is sooooo familiar to me. Audrey does that whispering to herself thing...usually with her hand over her mouth. She's taken it a step further though and gets very irritated with questions. It sort of makes her stand out even more when she yells at the asker "he's asking me questions!!!!". It must be so much harder for them than well ever know.
@ BD: I could imagine stroking a white cat on your lap with Griffin's Mwah ha ha in the background. Very Austin Powers.
@ Annicles: OMG! Louis would absolutely bomb on a test that asked what is missing. He would list everything he knows that isn't in the picture. Point of reference absolutely essential!
@Lyn: I have a rule for anyone new who wants to talk to Louis. Comment,Comment, Comment, Comment then question. I tell 'em to count it off their fingers on one hand. If you come in asking Louis questions he will kill you with his eyes. Audrey sounds like Louis' kinda gal.
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