We continue to focus on healing Aditya's "dry skin followed by itch followed by scratching" also commonly known as eczema. Oh, you didn't know? We have actually been trying to help him with this for over a year now.
In fact, healing eczema has now taken the center stage, and autism recovery continues to happen at an amazing pace without we even doing anything directly for that reason!
Agreed, we still have our only amazing volunteer Arjun play with Aditya twice a week in and out of the playroom. However Baba has not played for a while. Aai is doing the program the "life style program" way. This also means Aai-Baba-Aditya dual sessions have stopped.
On the other hand, Aditya went on his first 1:1 playdate at someone else's house! This seemed like an impossibility until last year. He also used to check out very early last year, suggesting his social stamina was relatively low.
In his last play date with "A", however, he (per A's mom) had a blast. He carried his own snack to the play date and had no hesitation eating it while A sipped tea. When he heard A was going to drink tea, he also expressed concern to A's mom that kids should not be drinking tea as it has caffeine. He must have been relieved to know it was a non-caffeinated tea!
Speaking of snacks, socialization and food are closely associated in pretty much every culture. He got an invite to another friend E's birthday party. E's mom, knowing Aditya's special diet, told him about the things he could eat. (We need to speak to the parents and request them not do this, as the stuff did have something we would rather Aditya did not eat.) Aditya's facial expression at this time was pricessless. He also seemed to open up like a social butterfly for a while right after this!
Healing eczema naturally (i.e. without conventional anti-histamines or cortisone creams) means sticking to a specific eating plan that most definitely excludes processed foods, but also has a constant need for rotation. Who thinks about this at a birthday party? We do. And I have to say, I think Aditya does too, thereby not being fully "available" to his friends in the making.
So when he got to eat SOMETHING at the party that was offered to him by the host (vs his own special box of snacks) he probably felt on top of the world.
We are at a strange place where we have never been. His dietary restrictions are no longer designed with autism recovery in mind. We actually think it will have a positive effect on his socialization if we removed the restrictions. However, dietary modifications is the safest way to treat eczema. (Other than option-provess-dialoguing to help Aditya get in touch with his beliefs. If he is like Baba, his eczema has nothing to do with the stimulus (the food) and everything to do with what he believes about himself and his present and his future.
The third friend we must talk about is S, also from his class like E and A. S loves teaching gymnastics and is super-patient and enthusiastic with her satudents. (I wish all my teachers were like this 7 year old.) Her student is none other than Aditya, who is equally patient and responsive. The two have been practicing various things gymnastics during recess. Aditya seems to be really enjoying this, class and like we said, S is one patient and enthusiastic teacher:)
Another very important update is about the Dad-And-Son group Y guides that Aditya and Baba joined in October. We have so far gone overnight beach-camping, bowling, and finally, a special all-family ice-skating event along with Shreya and Aai. The camping was fun, and Aditya seemed to really start connecting with the other sons during bowling. But it was ice-skating that had me completely "bowled over". Aditya not only showed enthusiasm to learn ice skating, he did extremely well, and IN THE END chose to finish multiple rounds of the skating rink on his own, without supervision from parents! Shreya did too, but the two kids were doing it all separately, and sometimes each with one of their own personal friends!
That last bit about we not supervising him requires another mention. It was our own recovery in one way. It was a "let go" experience. Especially when we watched him fall on his bottom, then look for help, and then get back up on his own!
Aditya has also finished one more round of basketball lessons, and earned his coaches' appreciation for being one of the most sincere students!
Last but not the least, Aditya also took a 3 day badminton camp over the thanksgiving break!
We recognize that we did not write a special thanksgiving post this year. But then we have never stopped feeling thankful to our kids!
