Hop Like a Frog, Walk Like a Bear

While we were waiting for the bus, I said to Alex, “Say, ‘I like sports and fitness!’ ”

“No!” Alex replied, shaking his head for emphasis.

Photo courtesy of longhorndave (flickr.com)

So much for going in with an enthusiastic beginning. Still, we thought it could be fun for Alex to do a little fitness and sports-type stuff in a supportive atmosphere. (Note: his new school is big on this, and we get occasional e-mails from the unit teacher saying how much he likes the gym routines and the therapy balls.)

Unfortunately this event took place right near a playground Alex is very fond of, with a gigantic marble slide. As soon as we got there, Alex started asking to go in the playground and go on the slide, and we spent a fair amount of energy trying to persuade him to take place in some fun easy obstacle course stuff (touch the traffic cones, hop like a frog, walk like a bear).

Afterwards we rewarded him with a new polar bear from the store that has little plastic animals, and that was our fitness day. Given our current employment (or unemployment) status, we’re not really in the market for an afterschool program we’d have to  pay for, for Alex, but we both liked Eric Chessen very much and think his fitness program for kids with autism is well-designed. If I have one regret about Alex’s early childhood (and actually I have several) it’s that we didn’t play ball with him. I believe that the back-and-forth of simple ball-playing is a form of communication, and kids with autism in particular might spark something that leads to verbal communication.

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MJ says he is the father of “three beautiful daughters who unfortunately have to struggle with autism.” He is also the driving force behind Autism Jabberwocky, a terrific blog that asks tough questions. (Disclosure: MJ wrote about us on his blog, and we were really glad —and he also left a comment or two here on Autismvox.com at a time when we were happy to get a friendly comment.)

Things I love about Autism Jabberwocky: rolling list of recent autism blog topics on the lefthand side. It’s nice to see our name there, of course, but it also reminds us to check in with other interesting blogs. Very clear blog archive by month, listing the number of posts. I always learn something when I read Autism Jabberwocky. Today it’s a good discussion about Dr. Thomas Insel, director of the National Institute of Mental Health and chair of the Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee. As usual, MJ has pointed out something no one else has really considered, and I doubt I myself would have noticed, as tired and fogged and bogged down by Other Stuff as I so often am. Glad he’s around with his sharp eye and keen observations.