Saturday, February 9, 2008

(HBOT 85) More Awareness

My Dad and I both noticed that Jonathan seems more aware of his surroundings even with just 5 dives. It is becoming hard to trick him lately. But I believe that it is because the past couple of days he has been able to express himself better. The disconnect between the area in his brain that produces his thoughts and the area that expresses those thoughts in verbal language is still very profound. So I believe that he can reason more than what he lets us believe.

HBOT was good, uneventful. We watched the Magic School Bus and the hour went by quick. After that, he accompanied me to run errands and he was great. We went to a spa so I could purchase a facial cream, and he was very curious, spoke with the 2 girls at front, who were great and gave him candy and juice. He said hi to people he saw out on the street. He noticed things, like buildings and the colors of the buildings, how fast the wheels in a tire rotate when driving. He even pointed out a couple of bumper stickers. He was very talkative. We went to Costco and for the first time it was not stressful for me to go shopping with him. He helped me put stuff in the cart, he was patient (we waited 30 minutes to pay). He was fun to be with.

In the evening we want to our friends house. They had invited other couples with kids. There were 8 kids and Jonathan did really well. He played with them for the majority of the evening. At one point, the kids were kicking each other, he came to me and said "mommy, I am taking a break from people. Can I play Wii please?" I really liked that. Because he was able to easily regulate his emotions and look for an activity that was more enjoyable without a meltdown. We always ask him to take breaks from video games, so he used the logic to transition from one activity to another one. Unless you live with a child with autism who cannot deal with crowds or transitions, it is hard to understand what a great achievement it is that Jonathan has learned to manage this. No more meltdowns due to over stimulation :)

A pretty good day.

All the kids in the basement watching a Scooby-Do mystery movie in the dark :)

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