Kai has his special needs ice skating class on Saturday mornings. Children skate with a buddy who gives them a little instruction along with companionship. Kai’s buddy this year is a junior high student who is very friendly and nice to him.
As I watch them skate around the rink, I see Erica constantly talking to Kai. I rarely see him talking her.
I feel a bit sorry for Erica. I don’t know how much she understands about Kai’s special need and hopes that she is not taking his non-communicative behavior personally. I think she does understand that communication is one of his big challenges as she keeps plucking away each week, which I really appreciate.
After this week’s session, I asked Kai what she and Erica were talking about on the ice.
“I hate talking!” he huffed. And then he refused to say any more about it.
Sigh.
At home he will talk non-stop about Legos or Trashies or anything of interest to him, so it’s not that he hates talking. But a two-way communication, particularly with someone he is not as familiar with? That he hates.
We still have work to do.
Kai and I planned to watch the Daytona 500 together yesterday. I wasn’t sure what time the race would start so I turned on the television to see how far along they were with the pre-race show. I could tell that they still had a ways to go until the race would begin, so I suggested turning off the tv.
Kai piped up. “It’s okay, Dad. You just have to be patient.”
My boy lecturing me on patience; ha!
We ended up watching the entire race, which will please his PE teacher at school.
Watching the race together was nice, but since when have they had so many commercials for erectile dysfunction products on NASCAR? Kai takes note of many commercials these days, often asking questions like ‘what is that product?’. I debated whether to turn off the tv during these commercials, but decided that it would only call attention to them. I was relieved that on this afternoon, I did not have to answer “Dad, what is sexual activity?”
A similar experience occurred while we watched the Academy Awards. I used to enjoy watching the Oscars, back in the days when I used to see the movies that were nominated. But since becoming a family man, we have never sat down to watch the show together.
Yesterday, when Mom had one of the red carpet shows on, Kai was interested so we decided to watch. Though I think his initial interest was due to a misunderstanding. He kept saying something about Sesame Street. He often does not speak clearly so I had no idea why he was talking about Sesame Street. Finally my wife figured it out: Oscar from Sesame Street! We had to explain that this was a different Oscar.
I regretted letting Kai watch when Seth MacFarlane started to sing about “Boobs.” My son thought it was funny, though I couldn’t tell if he really understood what the song was about. My response, once again, was to squirm uncomfortably, ignore it, and hope that it ended soon.
I was a bit relieved when the host went on to his Sock Puppets bit, which was very funny and much more family friendly. Kai spent much of the rest of the evening asking me to replay it on his iPad. I tried to explain that it wasn’t a real commercial so it would not be on YouTube. He didn’t like that answer. But about a half hour later, I found that someone had already posted the opening monologue online and we watched the Sock Puppets once more.
And finally, the photo of the weekend. We had several inches of snow late last week so we were able to go sledding.
Kai still prefers to go on the very small hill in our neighborhood instead of the taller one.
We usually only see toddlers on this baby hill. But Kai gets very anxious at the thought of going down to the big hill. And while I tried to get him to go down that big hill a couple years ago, I’ve let him have his fun on the small hill since. But this time I told him that this was the last year for the small hill.
Starting next winter, he graduates to the big hill, like it or not. I want to see him grow up when it comes to conquering his anxieties. Though when it comes to learning about ED or boobs, not so much.
I thought there were too many commercials, period, during the race! ha. And yes, soooo many about ED treatments. Good grief.
ReplyDeleteWrong Oscar...oh, that is priceless. :)
I think it would be great to get the message to Erica that Kai would love to talk about Legos. I'm sure she's just talking about stuff he doesn't care about.
Love the sledding picture.
At the rink, I try to encourage Kai to talk to Erica about topics that are of interest to him. But he really does not like responding to others no matter the subject. He is fine expressing the thoughts in his head, but it is still really hard for him to answer questions that are asked.
DeleteUh Oh! What is sexual activity :)
ReplyDeleteI know you were on the spot there!
I hadn't gotten the Oscar-Sesame Street connection right away either. That was funny.
I never paid much attention to the content of commercials until my son started to watch them on tv. Now I notice how much more explicit they are than when I was a kid.
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