The art of being an Autismom or dad is one that demands patience, empathy, and above all, the ability to use diversion to avoid conflict. This has been my experience, anyhow.
Ollie, like many on the spectrum, has a tendency to get “stuck” or fixated on one idea or phrase, much like a stylus stuck on a scratch on a record. Diversion acts like a penny placed on that stylus to get the record to continue playing. It works.
Most of the time. 🙂
Yesterday, Ollie was stuck on the idea of “Give me another chance,” after I refused to give him his tablet back. He had memorized my credit card number and purchased Lego heads a while back, and lost that privilege.
I tried diversion after hearing “Give me another chance” for the umptienth time…
“Ollie, what is your favorite kind of car?”
Ollie looked at me and said:
“The kind of car that has a license plate that says “Give me another chance!!”
Some days, people…some days. 🙂
( This above entry is from a Facebook post dated a few years back. I still use the same set of tools today, so I thought it might be helpful. 🙂 )
autismom 