Leah's story Part 6 -Imagine That!

Those who have been around autistic people learn that they tend to not have an imagination in the way we think of it. If you have read Temple Gradin's book, Thinking in Pictures, you will see how vivid her thinking is. Yet she doesn't have an imagination as in fantasy type thinking. Her book is listed in my post on book recommendations.

During my first year of reading, I read through a lot of stories by parents. One was The Boy Who Loved Windows. (Also listed in book recommendations) She mentions some of the therapy they went through with their son. They would gentle push him past his comfort zone. This probably got filed in the back of my mind and God brought it forward when I needed it.

I was overwhelmed at the "needed" therapies. The availability here was non-existent for most of them and even if it was here, the cost was far more than we could provide. Again I felt the struggle of not being able to provide what Leah needed. Again God drew me to Him. He promised to be ALL we needed. I began to pray that God would provide for what we needed. He would direct us. I felt a nudge to start playing with Leah (about the age of 4 - I think - times become confused in my brain sometimes :) and encouraging Olivia and Rachel to do so as well. This ended up giving us a huge breakthrough with her. God always provides!!

Leah's idea of imaginative play was mimicking what she had seen. She had begun to play some, which I was grateful, but it was rigid. She would watch Dora or Blues Clues and act out whatever epidsode she had seen. No deviation.

We began to play with her. Since, like all small children, she would watch the same videos over and over,we knew them. She began to take part in them, but we began to throw in surprises. She was sliding down the rainbow with Blue again and all of a sudden a bear popped out. The look on her face was amusing. She didn't know what to make of it. She would stare a little while. It looked like a "Does not compute" look. Then she would go back to doing what she was doing. This would go on for weeks. Then one day, she laughed when we did something and then she would scream or play a long for a minute but only following our lead. Then slowly, ever so slowly, she began to deviate on her own. At first, she did it to get a reaction from us. Then she began to do it for her own pleasure.

Little did we know the monster we were creating. This child has had an imaginary friend for years. We have had to make sure we don't sit on Honey. Honey has had pink hair, blue hair, yellow hair, been six feet high and one inch tall. I had to go back to the store because we left Honey at the store with Leah in tears.

Honey has slowly been going away. Her imagination has not. My two recent favorite stories are below.

Leah was playing in the backyard. I could hear her for over an hour screaming and laughing. She was wildly going from one swing to the next on the swingset and up and down the slide. She came in all out of breath. "Mom, I was on a magic swing set. I went to jungles and volcanos. I was scared. I am never going there again!!"

Benjamin kept yelling for Leah one day. "Eah" 
Leah: "My name is not Eah!"
Benjamin: "Eah!"
Leah " My name is not Eah!"
Benjamin: "Eah!!"
Leah " My name is not Eah!!"
Me: "Leah. Benjamin cannot say an L. So he cannot say Leah."
Leah: (sighs and rolls eyes) "My name is Pippi!"

Pippi Longstocking, a girl of a great imagination, is the perfect idol for my lively Leah.

One last note: When we helped Leah out of her rigid play, it had far reaching affects into the rest of her personality. She began to break from routine in general. Nighttime routines didn't have to be so rigid. Daily activities could break from the norm. Somehow it helped her adjust in many ways, ways I would have not imagined. But God knew!