Spontaneously Role Playing for the First Time
Joaquin has never role-played (i.e. act like he’s somebody else) before. His non-verbal abilities, except for eye contact, were stagnant for years until last fall when I started using ABM essentials to awaken his brain in this area. Right now, symbolic gestures are one of our goals; they’re coming along nicely… And today, Kiki surprises me with the idea of making a video of him acting like a baby!
I love everything he put together. He knows he used sign language as a baby; he knows he used to do cositas in the bathroom. And I loved to see him crawling… As a baby he always led with his right knee and dragged the left leg. I remember Kate Wilde from ATCA mentioning that this suggests there was an imbalance in his brain at that age. Cool to see that his movement has shifted.
The little thing he does at the end is very exciting. It is the second time I see him this week moving (this time randomly; last time intentionally) in a way that tells me his brain is putting together what it needs to finally get “hopping” (i.e. jumping in one leg). For some reason I have the hunch that non-verbal communication and physical movement (namely spacial awareness?) are connected in the brain. I’m seeing both coming along for Kiki in ways that hadn’t happened spontaneously in many years before.
