Favourite Friday: Getting into the Television

Jane and I were walking through a nearby park.  The sun was shining and if you stepped off the shady path into the sun you could almost forget the chilly breeze.  A gentleman with a dog, a big coat and hat walked past us.  Jane was busy commenting on some crocuses that were coming up through the grass.  As she looked back she saw the gentleman and said to me, "Look, I can see Sven."

Of course, she was talking about Sven from Disney's Frozen. By the time I'd figured out what she was saying, the gentleman was a bit far away to say hello, so we talked for a moment how we might see him again another day.  I also made a mental note to talk again to Jane, who is nearly three years old, about not talking to strangers without mummy or daddy.

Then, Jane announced that she had an idea. She'd figured out how we could see 'Sven' again. "You need to get some scissors and cut a hole in the television." Ahhh.. yes, that way we can get into Frozen.  Read the rest of the post here

On 'Favourite Fridays', Rainbowsaretoobeautiful will publish the most popular post from the previous week. If you missed it, then here's your chance to catch up. See all our Favourite Friday's posts here .

Does Luke Skywalker have ADHD?

So, one of the weird things once you become a 'disorder' or 'condition' mummy is that you start spotting traits and signs everywhere. If you go to a playground and there's another kid there with similar traits to your kid, there's a secret glance with the other mum. Course it doesn't stop in the playground. Disney movies are a good place to start spotting traits and conditions.  Sci-fi and superhero shows are a goldmine too. And now I'm wondering if Luke Skywalker will be confirming my ADHD suspicions or not in the latest Star Wars: The Force Awakens that releases tomorrow.

Racing clouds - David's delight

Today is a bright and blustery day.  But, generally it's been particularly stormy over the last few days.  There's been a lot of grey skies, and at night there have been some high winds. As I'm stood waiting to collect David from his school yesterday, I'm sheltering between a wall and a large minivan. It's not too cold but the sudden gusts seem pretty chill some. My squeaking son gets brought to the gate and while I'm huddled up and face down, he's bright eyed.  As I pick him up, he is extremely happy. We always encourage him to say goodbye to his teachers.  As I go to encourage his eye-contact with the teachers I see he's loving the weather. In fact for a few moments its almost impossible to stop him looking at the clouds.

In 'Sporting red plastic belt accessories for the holidays' I wrote about how both our autistic boys, Anthony aged seven years and his younger brother David aged five, are sensory seeking with relation to the sense of touch. They are hypo-sensitive or under sensitive to touch and so seek it out as a way of balancing their sensory system.  They are also both hypo-sensitive with their sense of sight. This means they seek visual stimulus. For example Anthony might wiggle his fingers near his eyes and David likes to look at objects from odd angles. It makes their visual experience more interesting. Some people with autism use this as a way of calming and balancing their system.  Some trains of thought also believe the intensity of the stimulation is  enjoyable.

We can all imagine something we 'like' to look at. The pleasure of a beautiful painting maybe, baby animals, autumnal trees?  But if you are one of the people that loves to watch as the leaves are blown off the trees to the point of not being able to look away, then you might get the idea.  Possibly you enjoy looking at beautiful flowers?  The best part of a bunch of flowers for me is the smell.  I could stand and breath in beautiful smelling flowers for at least a minute.  And that's probably the closest I come to this feeling of sensory satisfaction.

David was intensely watching the clouds.  It was only as I looked up at them that I saw how lovely they really were.  They were a variety of shades spanning  everything between periwinkle and ash blonde.  And I became aware of how fast they were moving.  It was like watching the people who walk on the travellators in airports. And I thought, how beautiful. David literally squealed with delight.  And then with a little more encouragement he looked back, waved goodbye to his teachers and skipped away with me.  

Once I'd retrieved the rest of the children it occurred to me that of the 1400 children and adults that were at the school at that moment, my son and I could have been the only two people to have enjoyed the sky right then.  In that moment, there was nothing that David found more enjoyable than to breadth in the sky. In some ways I wish I'd had more time to look at them with him.  My son may see the world differently to other kids but what he sees is amazing.

External Links
NAS - Sensory

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Favourite Fridays: Freezing during Frozen - Makaton in action 3 Nov 2015

It might be starting to get cold outside by that's not why I'm freezing.  Nor am I upset by a scratched disc acting up or poor streaming of what must be the favourite song collection of many young girls. I'm not upset at all.  I'm having fun whilst repeatedly freezing my body during a Disney's Frozen song because it's making my son talk. Read the full post ...

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Freezing during Frozen songs

It might be starting to get cold outside by that's not why I'm freezing.  Nor am I upset by a scratched disc acting up or poor streaming of what must be the favourite song collection of many young girls. I'm not upset at all.  I'm having fun whilst repeatedly freezing my body during a Disney's Frozen song because it's making my son talk.

As you may know, David was diagnosed with Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD) in 2013. He is now five years old and has made good progress. He communicates using a mix of verbal sounds, PECS and Makaton. We have found that Makaton allows us to communicate in different environments or in new things where we might not have our PECS set up. 'Gap filling' is one of the classic ways to help kids with speech delay talk. 'Twinkle twinkle little.......' and then hopefully your child fills in the gap/blank and says 'star'.

Before David started school we used to attend Singing Hands classes. The organisation uses Makaton as a communication aid for young children. David often found it difficult to focus during the session but afterwards we found he would be very interested in the same rhymes and songs and we now use Makaton sign language everyday. His attention has improved and he can now watch some full length movies including Disney's Frozen. He loves the songs, but I was pretty sure he was just enjoying the music. I'm not allowed to sing along as I think it's too distracting for him.

But, yesterday when we'd finished with the television I started singing one of the song's 'Love is an open door'.  My Makaton is not bad, and when I saw David's interest I was able to sign my way through most of the song.  David stood watching.  We came to the chorus and I stopped just before the word 'door', and David spoke.  It wasn't clear, it was more a 'du' than 'door'.  But it was definitely an effort. And then he did the biggest grin.

Honestly, nearly every time there is this type of connection I get the same joy as when his younger sister, Jane, said 'mummy' for the first time. I'm still not allowed to sing when we have Frozen on the television, but I'm allowed to sign and I hope that it might be giving him more understanding and a greater connection with it and therefore the world around him.

External Links
See the sign for door - Singing Hands sign Wheels on the Bus on YouTube