Playing "School " with DS
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| Fri, 08-11-2006 - 3:04am |
The other day, David wanted to play "School" with me and his stuffed animals. This is something we do once every couple of months or so. He's got a white board in his room, and he lines up all toys (okay, a small fraction of the toys, since he has a million). He's always the teacher, and typically there is a Bionicle guest speaker who comes and brags about their special powers, or perhaps a field trip to a mad science lab. Sometimes he'll make up a worksheet for me (as a stuffed animal) to complete.
Well, on this day, he had something planned which I thought was kind of interesting. He "reminded" the class that every day the principal picks a student's name at random, and that student gets a special treat. The "treat" is that the student gets to go to a special room where they get to do Science, Reading, and Math all by themselves. I asked if there would be a teacher, and he said, "yes", but no other students. The princial picked Not-a-Bus, who is a stuffed raccoon. (David named him at when he was two and a half. His name is Not-a-Bus because he is, indeed, NOT a bus.) So, we played "one-on-one" school for a while. Then I asked David if he personally would like to be able to be the only kid in the class, and he said "yes".
I wasn't surprised at all. But I thought it was interesting that he brought that preference into his playing. I love these moments when I learn a bit about how he feels inside. So much of our communication is about which Kanoka Nuva is worn by Tahu and which one is worn by Pohatu, or reminding me AGAIN of the alternate versions of "Jingle Bells, Batman Smells." In fact, his NT brother thinks that is normal, so HE also bombards me with his one made up fantasy things, and rarely gives a glimpse of his real inner self.
As far as David's wish to have one-on-one schooling...well, unfortuately this year he's going into 3rd grade, and I'm pretty sure this is when classes go from 20 per class to something insane, like 35. On the bright side, they are implementing some kind of pilot program for Aspies, which David will be included in for part of the day. They tell me there will be a staff of people who are actually knowledgeable about ASD's. Knock on wood. I'll believe it when I see it, but I have high hopes.
Only a couple more weeks! Yikes!
Evelyn

Evelyn,
That's really interesting! and neat that he plays that and shared w/ you!
Weston too has also said he'd like to be in a class all by himself. He also has told me that he'd like to take all the "bad, mean kids" to Mr B (the assistant principal) and then he could be in the class w/ all the good quiet girls and Nicholas and things would be good. LOL!
Betsy