It will never cease to amaze me what happens to Billy when the stresses in his life are reduced.
I know, if you have no experience of autism spectrum disorders or their anxiety/behaviour related friends, you might think it's insane for me to be talking about a six year old having a stressful life.
But the world is stressful. Noise is stressful. Conversation is mega stressful. Doing the right thing is stressful. Hell, knowing what the right thing is, is stressful. Everyday life is stressful.
But four weeks into a seven week holiday from school, with the stresses of Christmas over, Billy has found his mojo.
He can follow instructions, he is creative and funny, he is learning at a rate of knots, writing, reading, adding and subtracting... just by living life. No-one's teaching him. He is learning, through his skin.
Watch... tomorrow will be a new and hideous day. Full of all sorts of crazy leaps of logic, and unpredictable tears, and endless repeating of David Attenborough narration (in that distinctive David Attenborough voice)...
And don't get me wrong... there's still charging across the room with arms out wide like aeroplane wings going 'hnnnnn', there's still a set of eyes way too close to mine looking waaaay too closely at mine, there's still word for word renditions of all sorts of stuff... he's still autistic.
But happy is happy. Calm is calm. And brave is brave.
What are a few odd behaviours between friends, huh?
1 comment:
I so get this. My boy is sooo happy that the craziness of Christmas is over. The day before break was over he told me he was going to take a taxi to school if I didn't take him lol.
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