Autism: If You Can't Beat 'Em, Join 'Em!

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Hi All,
I was just going through my photos. I came across this and it made me laugh. This little guy was really a challenge when I first got him. He was resistant to pretty much anything anyone wanted him to do. Gradually he began to come around but it took a lot of hard work and effort on both of our parts and the part of all of his service providers.

Even though he came around, there were some urges that he simply COULD NOT RESIST. One was a school bus. He LOVED SCHOOL BUSES! When the buses arrived in the morning he was right there at that window. When the buses arrived in the afternoon he was right there too. And if anyone in the school was going on a field trip; well that just threw off my whole schedule because he was going to be at that window when they loaded and when they returned. The bottom line of it all was that nothing I did would get him away from that window if a bus was outside.

So I figured, "Well, if I can't beat him, I'll join him." I started with a little Board Maker piece that said, "bus". This was helpful for him because he was mostly non-verbal. So when the bus came I would get the piece and show it to him and say, "Bus, you see a bus." He took it from me and said, "BUS!" He was so excited. It never got old for him. He went from just saying BUS to saying, "I see bus!" I was so excited when he did that. He spoke in a complete sentence! I made a sentence strip and taped it in the window. We would read the sentence, "I see a bus." He really appreciated having something concrete to touch and point to while he said his words.

Next we started counting. I would say let's count the buses. I made enough pieces for him to count 5 buses. He loved it. He started saying things like, "I see 3 buses!" This made me just as excited as he was because he was talking. When a bus would leave I would say, "The bus is leaving, bye-bye bus! Now how many buses are left?" Soon he was saying that too! He would say, "Bye-bye bus!" So precious!