Do All The Other Kids Here Have Autism?

It was day two of the Next Steps Academy and the energy level was high!  When we laughed, we laughed a little louder...and maybe a little too long.  When we were told to spin, we spun but sometimes couldn't stop.  Still, almost everyone tried everything at least once.

Remember the boy from yesterday who got up and left the "Beginning of Day"?  Today, he stayed there for the entire time, just positioned at the back of the room.  He had brought two new books.  One was about science projects that could be done in a hurry but he was adamant that you should never do things in a hurry like that!  When everyone moved to their small group, he politely said "No thank you.  I'll just go read my books."

We pretended to make up conversations speaking gibberish to a partner. "Have a happy conversation.  Now, pretend you're angry.  And now be excited.  Don't use your hands and feet, just use your voice." The teacher asked the boy in the quiet room if he'd like to join in that activity.  "Don't you think it sounds like fun?"  "No, that's not a real language! Why would anyone talk like that.  It's not real!"

We made sounds that we might hear in a swamp.  One boy spontaneously gave another a compliment, "Wow, that was a really good frog noise.  I can't do that!"  Some were better at making the sound of the wind.  Some made no sounds but pretended to be an alligator.

By mid morning, everyone was ready for a break.  The group in Room One got their snacks and a book and went off to different parts of the room to be alone.  The group in Room Two stood in small clusters having conversations with each other.  The difference between the two rooms was interesting and possibly due to the difference in their ages.

By the second part of the morning, the teacher with the one young man asked him if he wanted to make friends this week.  He said "Well yes, I do."  To that, the teacher replied, "Well, you can't make friends if we sit alone in this room every morning."   He thought about that for a bit and then said "Do all the other kids here have autism?"  And she said "Yes they do and they are in the other rooms making friends."  And so, for a part of the morning, the boy joined the group, sat with them in a circle, and answered the question of the day.  "What do you want to be when you grow up?"  His answer, "I want to be a scientist."  And then he continued with more and more information.  At one point, the boy next to him asked a question and he said "Excuse me, let me finish please!" So, we'll have to work on making friends but at least he entered the room...for a while.

It would be great to be able to say that all of Day Two went smoothly but that would not be completely true.  As the second session wore on for the younger group, one boy was making announcements letting us know which train was leaving the terminal at that time and what the chances were that they were running on time.  Another boy began asking "How many more minutes?" and he fell apart before the time elapsed.  One had his hands over his ears because it had gotten a little loud and the youngest one tried playing deaf when he didn't like the directions and when no one paid attention to him, he left the group altogether.  He had grown tired of not being able to make up his own plays.

Still, by 11:45, they all regrouped for End of Day.   Our lone boy, once again willingly shared in front of the whole group and many more offered to share acknowledgments.

Day two was about reaching a new level of comfort at the academy!  Day Two stretched all of us...to try something new,  to get quiet when we wanted to make noise, to handle a little more frustration, to last a little longer, and to try out some of that advice from yesterday...there's always Plan B!