It's Amazing
Peter continues to surprise me. He is stereotypical in his autism (with the hand-flapping and squeals) and appears to be mentally disabled to many who meet him but he's very smart.
As I've mentioned before, he is learning to potty train and today he has been coming up to me and handing me a diaper to let me know he has to go potty. He has volunteered to go potty very few times since he started going consistently so I've had to remember throughout the day to ask. Peter's very visual and I'm sure when he saw the diaper I had left out for his brother, it seemed a natural extension to use it to tell me what he needed. Now the next step is to get him to use his words all of the time instead of occasionally.
His favorite thing to do (for now) is to say the alphabet and sign each letter as he says them. He is very much attracted to numbers and we've been adding more shapes to his geometry knowledge. He can identify all the usual shapes (star, moon, diamond, rectangle, square, circle, oval, etc.) but he can also identify an octagon (he knows stop signs are octagons) and the current favorite-- trapezoids. His teacher says that she can count on Peter to answer questions during circle time and he always knows the answer.
Most children with autism often have above average intelligence and this is the case with both Peter and Nathan. However, I worry that with Peter, as he grows older, people will not see him but his autism (Nathan isn't as obvious with his stimming). I also worry that people will assume that he is "slow" and try to limit him. This will be an area we will have to learn to contend with and teach him how to break the stereotype.
As I've mentioned before, he is learning to potty train and today he has been coming up to me and handing me a diaper to let me know he has to go potty. He has volunteered to go potty very few times since he started going consistently so I've had to remember throughout the day to ask. Peter's very visual and I'm sure when he saw the diaper I had left out for his brother, it seemed a natural extension to use it to tell me what he needed. Now the next step is to get him to use his words all of the time instead of occasionally.
His favorite thing to do (for now) is to say the alphabet and sign each letter as he says them. He is very much attracted to numbers and we've been adding more shapes to his geometry knowledge. He can identify all the usual shapes (star, moon, diamond, rectangle, square, circle, oval, etc.) but he can also identify an octagon (he knows stop signs are octagons) and the current favorite-- trapezoids. His teacher says that she can count on Peter to answer questions during circle time and he always knows the answer.
Most children with autism often have above average intelligence and this is the case with both Peter and Nathan. However, I worry that with Peter, as he grows older, people will not see him but his autism (Nathan isn't as obvious with his stimming). I also worry that people will assume that he is "slow" and try to limit him. This will be an area we will have to learn to contend with and teach him how to break the stereotype.
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