Bad Behavior Can Be Good

When you are a parent of a child with autism, it can be interesting when you have moments of being happy when your child is being difficult.

This last weekend, my best friend and her husband (who happens to be one of my husband's brothers) came to stay with us while they took her sister up to Weber State. They were only able to stay with us for about a day and a half, and for most of that time, they were out and about. When they left on Sunday morning, Darin was VERY sad to see them go. Now perhaps my son can recogize a kindred sprit in Uncle Jared who also has autism, but it was so wonderful to see Darin be emotionally attached to Uncle Jared - even if he was pouty and cranky for about an hour afterward.

But even more exciting was to hear that my children were fighting over an imaginary backpack. Autistic kids usually don't have a great knack for imaginary play, so when Scott told me that Darin and Lizzy had been fighting and crying over an imaginary backpack, I couldn't help but be pleased. Darin had been watching Dora the Explorer (one of his favorite shows unfortunately - the show drives us crazy!) and he put on an imaginary backpack when Dora put on her backpack. Well, Lizzy came over and "took" Darin's imaginary backpack and put it on herself. Darin came and "took" it back. The fighting ensued. But in the midst of the chaos (which I was luckily not a part of), it was exciting to note that not only did Darin imagine a backpack, he was able to continue to imagine that his backpack had been taken. He could have completely ignored Lizzy's behavior and not understand what she meant by her actions, but he caught on and took his revenge quickly.

So even though I'm sure there was some hitting involved in the episode, there was still joy in the moment.