I've got a bruised on my wrist and you know where!

Hmmmm ..... it's not me ..... it's Alex. He dragged me down while we were ice-skating. It was a straight fall and right on the base of my spine. I did not realise I had a swollen wrist until I took my gloves off. I must have tried to break the fall with my hands and must have twisted my wrist.

Anyway, I am better now after a good rub using a Chinese traditional ointment for bruise and sprains.

Alex is still not very confident standing on the ice unaided and kept leaning forward trying to grab me. This made it hard for him to balance his body, hence dragging me down with him. He is however still keen to go onto the ice again. He is much better today compared to last week - so I guess we'll just have to persevere.

I realised I haven't written much about Alex and his toys. Children with ASD are diagnosed based on the Triad of Impairments: Difficulty/Lack of Social Communication; Difficulty/Lack of Social Interaction and Difficulty/Lack of Social Imagination or flexibility of thought.

In the past, Alex would line his toys in a line and sat next to his toys stimming (flapping his arms when he is excited). Since late last year and early this year, he started "Symbolic Playing". An example of symbolic playing is when a child pretends that a banana is a telephone receiver, a box as boat or rocket etc.

I find this page very interesting - giving me an idea at what stage Alex is compared to his peers:

http://upetd.up.ac.za/thesis/available/etd-08252003-102211/unrestricted/09appendixB.pdf

Based on the checklist, Alex's symbolic play falls between Stage VIII and X roughly around 3 years to 5 years.

Examples of his recent imaginative play are

1. He uses a yellow ball pretending to be a moon. He landed his toy rocket on the ball and would tell me "mama moon". He would then perform a countdown 5..4..3..2..1.. blast off (not in exact word but more like a hum);
2. He put a balloon on top of a cookie jar and lift the jar and the balloon - pretending to be a hot air balloon;
3. He transport his cars in a tray pretending to be a ferry and then unload the car in a line pretending to be a queue waiting to board the ferry;
4. He uses his human figures from other toys and place them on a fire engine and pretend to be a fire fighter;
5. He climbed inside the duvet and pretend it's a tent;
6. He uses a piece of paper and place a cap on it pretending to be a train (the cap as the funnel)

I told Julia about his play and she is really impressed with his abilities. Jeremy and I often watch him play and would remark to each other "if this is not imagination, we don't know what is".

Alex is delayed in all three categories when he was first diagnosed but his Social Imagination skill is catching up really quickly. Based on the same checklist, Alex's speech falls on Stage II (similar to those of 17 to 19 months).

Children with ASD developed differently comparing to their peers. Developmental delay in some areas and advanced in others. No one can actually say that Alex's ability or development is similar to children of a certain age but it has to be broken down to different areas such as his speech ability is similar to an 18 months child or his cognitive/comprehension ability similar to those of 3.5 to 4.5 years.

We learn to appreciate each and every development that Alex achieves and what he can do now brings us so much joy because we know we did not miss any of his milestones.