Adding this insight by way of further explanation re the development of resilience - in particular, as it relates to Philip. It’s so obvious that I totally overlooked it L It wasn’t until a fellow NAS Councillor and I started to have a discussion about what we see in the clip in the previous blogpost that I realised I needed to clarify that Philip's resilience did not exist before we started using RDI to work on social and emotional development, and its taken us years of hard slog to get to where we are now with it.
I'm not kidding - it didn’t exist and was the source of many, many meltdowns (not just for him) as he experienced failure after failure (social and otherwise) and was not able to have another go at something.....even the smallest and (what would seem to typically developing people) most insignificant challenge.
I'm not kidding - it didn’t exist and was the source of many, many meltdowns (not just for him) as he experienced failure after failure (social and otherwise) and was not able to have another go at something.....even the smallest and (what would seem to typically developing people) most insignificant challenge.
That is why I am so fearful in the clip when I try to suggest that he makes do with me having lit the gas ring.
In years past he would not just have walked away from the whole activity as soon as he 'failed' at the first try lighting the ring, he would also have gone into a psychological downer on himself e.g. 'I'm rubbish...I'm useless....I can't do anything', often culminating in 'my life sucks' or 'I don’t want to be here any more'.
That is very hard for any parent to hear. I hope people can appreciate why, for me, impairments in resilience are the curse of autism.
Zoe, I don't know much about Philip's background, however, I really thought the clip was great. Philip handled the situation exceptionally well. You must be very proud... and relieved! :)
ReplyDeleteIt's working Zoe, keep doing what you are doing! x