For the entirety of Leelo's solid-food-eating life, he has had to have his grub cut up in bite-sized pieces or else. Seymour, Babysitter A, and I have been trying to help him increase his tolerance for taking the bites himself, but he has never greeted a non-bite-sized piece of sandwich, etc. with anything less than a screaming tantrum. (Except, for some reason, bananas.)
Until today. Today I laid out five slices of PB&J sandwich, and he ate them not only without complaint, but by taking bites! In the past his slice-eating technique was to shove each slice straight down his throat with only a couple of perfunctory chews.
This may seem like a small victory, but it really is huge. The fact that he continues to take these steps makes me think that we might be able to potty train him after all. I certainly hope so, because we're going to do potty training boot camp--all underwear, all day long--starting August 5th.
I wonder if we might as well try to indoctrinate Mali into The Society of Independent Butt Wipers along with her brother. You know, as long as we're going to have shit all over the place anyhow. She currently views going to the potty as merely another pretend play activity: she loves sitting on the potty, wiping her bottom, taking down her pants, all that. But the actual excretion, it is not happening; she prefers to talk about all the people who excrete, instead. If she has ever been introduced to you, rest assured that you have come up in one of her enthusiastic declarations listing that "...and XX goes poo-poo on the potty."
I am going to try to be optimistic about Leelo and potty training. Even if it doesn't work out, at least we'll have a nice soundtrack, as Leelo has recently taken up the kazoo again, and we get to hear him playing his favorite songs--while clapping to the beat--all day long. Clever boy.
Technorati Tags: autism, autism blog, autistic
No comments:
New comments are not allowed.