At one of the local churches they have a night once a month where children who are disabled can come and have dinner and a special service. It was our first visit and it turned out to be an interesting experience. It didn't start out too well because as we were waiting for the minister to say the blessing Griffin wanted something to eat so he grabbed a piece of chicken and then wanted some chocolate milk. Well the women kept telling him that he had to wait for the prayer which he didn't understand. I had the idea that it would be okay for him to wait because he has to wait at school for his meal but it wasn't okay and he proceeded to have a meltdown. So then I got him the milk after I got him calmed down and explained to him about how we sometimes have to wait for things when we don't want to. He seemed to understand but I think that next time I will just go ahead and get him the milk because it really wasn't a big deal for him to have it and not worth a meltdown and certainly they will understand next time and not insist that he has to wait. It was after all a special dinner for the disabled and they've got to get used to the idea that sometimes autistic children have difficulty with the concept of waiting for a blessing. It is abstract not concrete so I can understand why he didn't get it.
I think that sometimes it is good to teach Griffin under certain circumstances to wait because as he gets older he will have to have an understanding of patience and a tolerance for sitting and waiting or doing something else in the meantime. I think that maybe he was just hungry too which fueled the fire.
3 comments:
I think it is very important for all kids to learn patience. I know my son, Kai, has a lot of issues with patience too. He wants things right now now now.. and life doesn't always work that way. We been trying hard this last year to teach him that sometimes you have to wait for things. It is a hard concept for him to understand.
I hope that Griffin learns a little patience for you in the future. Till then mommy may need some patience with dealing with melt downs. *giggle*
Have a good night hun
The abstract is much harder to teach, especially when our children are so logical and literal :) I always find too that all of my children (NT and autistic) get very grumpy when they are hungry, often their crankiness is how I know they are hungry as they don't always recognise the signs themselves!! Jen
Once again it's a matter of choosing your battles, right?
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