Lines

Yesterday evening, Ben and I played with some Play-Doh at the dining room table together; then he wanted to color, so I put his Crayons and a coloring book on the floor between the dining room and living room for him.  Because I am sick and felt horrible last night, I went to sit in the recliner.

I know.  That was a mistake, and it is completely my fault.  I know better, and I deserve the scrubbing I had to do and the carpet cleaning I will have to do.  Judge all you want, but I felt like complete poo, and that is my excuse.

Ben came up to me and said, "I made lines!"  My first thought was, "What do you mean 'lines'?" because Ben doesn't draw in lines.  His extremely delayed fine motor skills are one of the more obvious signs of his high-functioning Asperger's.  When we had him diganosed through the school district, they estimated his fine motor skills were at about 18 months of age, and he was 4&1/2 at the time.  It was terrifying, and one of the reasons I was driven to find a better placement for him.  His former class was so over-crowded that his teacher could not work one-on-one with him, and his fine motor delay was grossly neglected.  Ben draws in unformed scribbles and specks, or so I thought. 

I went to see what he was talking about, and sure enough, about four feet from where I was resting, there were lines.  Of crayon.  On the carpet.

That poor carpet. 

But I barely had time to think about that, because THERE WERE LINES!  BEN DREW LINES! 

I was so excited I cried.

We had him draw more, and he carefully held the crayon with his pointer finger on top to guide it and drew lines.  LINES!  STRAIGHT LINES!  And just now, as I was typing this, he drew a circle.  A CIRCLE!  I nearly fell out of the computer chair.  And I cried again.  Ben thinks I've lost it, but that's okay.  I am so proud and relieved I can barely stand it.

It's amazing how much hope a line of crayon on the carpet can give a person, but that comes along with this syndrome.  The 'little' things are amazing for children on the spectrum.  Because they struggle with those little things.  Those things some people get to take for granted, parents of kids on the spectrum get excited about.  What some parents would be angry about, I want to frame and hang on the wall and save forever. 

Of course we told him not to draw on the carpet and that coloring is for paper, but it is impossible to be angry about your child's success.  And I do consider this a beautiful, wonderful, glorious success.  It's progress, and progress deserves to be celebrated. 

We work with him at home, and his occupational therapist works with him, but I know this success is due to his new teacher in his new placement.  He brought home a huge stack of papers on which he had helped cut, paste, draw, and trace his name.  There were at least twice as many papers in that stack from about nine weeks in Mrs. S's class than he brought home from his two years in his former placement.  They work with him every day.  They work and they work, and now Ben can draw LINES!

Beautiful, wonderful, glorious lines!