Embracing the odd, Week 1

After I posted the last blog about embracing the odd I had the idea to start doing this on a weekly basis. Since Alvin has one with Asperger's syndrome, and Elliot by all accounts is normal but has about a year speech delay I figured a once a week I'm going to openly talk about something odd that has happened with one or both kids and in Alvin's case an explanation, if any, as to why it is happening.

I start this week with an incident that happened at the gym on Wednesday night. Alvin was in his normal gymnastics class and has recently learned everyone's name. With learning everyone's name he now wants to say hi to everyone. Well there is one problem with this. He wanted to do it all class long and during every station. While it was cute at first it quickly became an obsession. At the end of the class his teacher commented that he was quite social. I of course was watching the entire class and part of me just couldn't help laugh a little at what I saw and say only my kid. The teacher is working with him to be more independent and with him obsessively saying hello to everyone that makes it a little hard for the other kids to not pay too much attention to him and make him do the work himself!

Granted in this case we know exactly why Alvin is saying hi to everyone. Since he just learned about two months ago how to express himself, now is learning how to talk at the right time. This is where being around normal kids helps a lot. Socially at times he is around a 2.5 year old. Which when you watch his social interactions makes perfect sense. In the gym he gets the social interaction with kids his age and older. The only way for him to learn the way to be socially like a typical 4 to 5 year old is for him to be around them. So why some days it might be painful to watch its necessary. He still has fun of course and seems to be catching on pretty well.

So this week while I struggled to watch the awkwardness I also have to remember something. It will get better. This will not last for too terribly long and he will move forward. Two months ago he was barely talking and expressing himself and certainly not saying hello to anyone.

So this week I embraced the social awkwardness of his actions and just try not to laugh too much. Because like we say at home, at least he is talking!