Looks like our visit to IKEA two Saturdays ago was only the beginning! Based on his success there, Aditya seems to have made long term plans about making friends with stimuli which he has always been afraid (even paranoid) of.
Two days ago, in the morning:
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Are I am (his way of saying "Am I") a big boy now?
YES, YOU ARE.
In IKEA I was not scared for (of) the dryer any more.
YES! YOU ARE A BRAVE BOY!
Are I am brave?
YES!
And I am not scared of the noise!
WOW... THAT IS WONDERFUL ADITYA. I AM SO HAPPY ABOUT THAT!
I am not scared of children's noise! (Note: Aditya usually does not enjoy being in places such as birthday parties where he must play around kids who scream and run helter skelter all the time.)
WOW! THAT'S WONDERFUL!
________
Yesterday morning:
In the IKEA I was not scared for (of) the dryer any more.
YES ADITYA! YOU ARE A SUCH A BRAVE BOY!
....
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Then, last night.....
We were interviewing someone for a position on our Son Rise program team. This person came across as just the right person as soon as we met her. But she literally clinched the position when...
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At the end of our meeting, out came Aditya who is always excited to meet his "new friends" who call up and come home to find out: "CAN I PLAY WITH ADITYA?" (That's right... we let Aditya interview the person.)
So here he came, and as if he knew this person was about to get hired, he threw a question he has never done to anyone before.
Do you like FAN BLADES?
"Oh I love fan blades" said she!
And so the two new friends talked for 2 more minutes about fan blades and fans, and then suddenly Aditya remembered to tell her he was a brave boy, who did not feel afraid of the dryer.
At this point:
"That's great... and did you know that the dryer contains a fan too"- says she.
"Dryer contains a fan?" says Aditya who had most probably never thought about the hot air blowing noisy monster in this way!
"Yes, it contains a fan so it can blow air on our hands to make them dry!"
"OKAY" says Aditya with a smile!
"YEAH... we have to thank her because we did not know the dryer contains a fan too!" I pitch in at this point as I wondered about what she had just done! How did she know to connect the dryer (the Villain) to the fan (the HERO)?
"SO NEXT TIME I CAN USE THE DRYER!" says Aditya, still similing!
It is well known that the Son Rise program encourages parents to use the "option" process of looking at anything. But from our first hand experience, I think Aditya is clearly using the Option process... and doing it much better than us!
And to us, that's really the key benefit of doing this program. For us, it is not as important to see him actually use a dryer as it is to see him feel confident and comfortable about even thinking about it.... or about any other experience which he has been avoiding until now!
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