Hide and Seek, autie style!

Sit back, close your eyes and bring to mind a mental image of my two younger children. Her Cuteness is age 2 and  neurotypical (NT). HRH is age 3 and autistic. Her Cuteness decided that the pair of them should play a game of 'hide and seek'.

It went something like this:


Miss NT - "play, play, hide and seek. My turn, my turn, HRH hide, run away HRH"



HRH can now put one foot in front of the other is something resembling a very stiff and painful shuffle. He takes a step......

Miss NT - "3, 5, 17......I'm coming now!!"


She catches HRH after he has managed two steps. There are many screams of delight and happiness. Miss NT takes HRH by the hand and leads him the whole two steps back down the hall. She deposits him at the end of the stairs.

Miss NT - "count HRH, count...........I hide"


Miss NT turns to run up the hall.

HRH - 1, 2, 3, 4, 5  

But as he counts he shuffles after her, catching her about two steps up the hall. HRH squeals in delight at having caught her and Miss NT screams with frustration because she didn't get to run away and hide. 


Repeat the above 4 times.



Miss NT gets the concept of the game, but cannot count. HRH can count, but has no idea what 'hide and seek' is. To be fair they gave it their best shot, but I am still laughing, two days later. I know the next time they play I should take the opportunity to teach HRH the general idea of the game............. I will, if I can keep a straight face!







     

Intense, Unswerving 'Resistance to Change'

Excuse my absence for the last 3 weeks or so. I don't think I mentioned that we started building work on the house the week before HRH went into hospital. Given that he then spent 8 weeks in hospital I had to make 3 months worth of decisions in 3 weeks. As you can imagine, it has been hectic around our house! We now have a new kitchen and more living space at the back of the house and we love it. HRH, well............children with autism are known for 'resistance to change'.

But fear not, I had a cunning plan up my sleeve. Rather than move his toys etc into the new room I decided to buy him a new toy. I could then introduce the 'new' item and quickly move it to the 'new' room, without upsetting him by moving his 'old' toys into the new space, until he got used to it. So how did that go??


Well, he loved the 'new' play tent, absolutely loved it. But, uummm.............see for yourself:




Yep, that is HRH pushing his 'new' tent back to the older part of the house, where it should be!! I have to admire his determination, he still can't walk but he didn't let that stop him. The problem has been resolved now. My 2 year old daugher nagged him, without mercy, for two days, until we finally reached this happy stage: