Tag...your it...

Just a quick observation(ok maybe not so quick!)... Drew has been doing a WHOLE lot more of this....

What's that you might ask ;)... playing...playing with other kids... wanting to play with other kids..."getting it" too!! Now don't get me wrong. This is not entirely new BUT he is now seeking it out...a LOT more! A little back story.. When Drew was first diagnosed with autism he had Early Intervention or EI for short. Therapists came to the house and "worked" with him...mainly doing ABA therapy(applied behavior analysts).. and as I learned more about ABA the most I grew to DISLIKE it!! I have lots of friends that LOVE it and believe it can work wonders(and for some, it does!) and I totally respect that... But I knew it was not a good fit for us (some, maybe, us, NO WAY!) I wont get into it too much but it is a VERY rote way of learning. Something is presented over and over to the child until they are able to do it..normally in a very rote manner...meaning it never really "appears" to come naturally.. Like for example, an ABA therapist is teaching a child with autism what to say and do when greeted ... The child may learn to respond when asked "How are you doing?" "I'm fine and you?"  And this would be the only way that child could respond(sometimes autism makes it hard to think "outside the box")... he wouldn't vere too far from the "script"( this is an OVERLY simplified explanation, but you get it!). Now let me say that ABA is one of the ONLY proven methods to teach kids with autism but I don't follow the pack..and I don't like to listen to"authority"! And I'm glad we followed our own beat... So Drew received very little ABA because I didn't want him to have "that" kind of therapy(but let me say I LOVED his therapists!!)... He probably progressed slower than other children on the spectrum BUT what he did gain(by just "being")was something that "appears" to be natural!! So today when I saw him join in a game of "tag" it was clear that he WANTED to, not that he was taught to.  KWIM?? Drew does everything in his own time...it may be extremely sloooow(for some), but I know he will get there....in his own time :)...or maybe it was just the moon.. NAH!

FULL and spectacular... hurry, go take a peek... off to enjoy a looooong weekend with my amazingly wonderful boys! No really, they are :) Spectacular... just like the moon...