When we had our baby boy, the first images I conjured up were of me and him playing cricket in the backyard. (In India, we live, eat, breathe cricket!)
Then autism happened, so Aditya and I put those plans on the shelf for a while.
And then suddenly 6 years later (oh yeah, our twins just turned 6)...
"Can we play cricket?" came the first question as I entered Aditya's playroom on Sunday for my 1.5 hour play session.
"Of course!" I totally decided to believe what I heard and enthusiastically celebrated him.
We played for 15 minutes, and Aditya got me out a couple of times! He also hit a few boundaries (4 runs) and one six!
Then he asked, "Is playing cricket good for me? Does it reduce the noise around me?" (He is very motivated now with the thought of playing everyday, and seems to have accepted the idea that playing interactive games is great for him.)
And so we continued.... with a game of Chutes and Ladders.
In this game, things so happened that he went on winning game after game, at which time we put up a score board, which was soon reading Aditya 5 and Dad 0. Finally Dad won a game, and Aditya cheered him:-)
Thereafter, he requested to play Candy-Land which we did for the last 15 minutes of our play time.
What a day! My 6 year old dream came true when I least expected it, and Aditya showed fantastic attention span as well as flexibility.
I have to say this. The last 1.5 months have been a roller coaster. For a couple weeks it seemed like he did not make any progress, and perhaps even lost some of the ground. But boy... what a come back he has made!
Well done Aditya!
By the way, Aditya has really grown fond of cricket and "Chutes and Ladders" now, and plays these games with his friends, including Mom and his twin sister, almost every day. And by the way, winning and losing is just equally fine! Even I didn't have this sporting spirit when I was 6!
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