or,
How Fynn taught me to teach him how to read
A
few years ago grandpa gave Fynn an old drum machine. It has 100 preset
beats on it. Fynn also has a skunk puppet that he's loved for years.
Fynn used to turn on a beat, and dance around real silly like with th'
skunk- he was totally stimming out, laughing hysterically th' whole
time. Then he decided i needed to put on th' skunk puppet while he
flopped around up in his bunk bed laughing hysterically. He calls it th'
Skunk Movies. Often i thought, i'm encouraging his stimming. But it
seemed to be harmless, and truth be told it was fun. Gave me a reason to
dance around and be silly without feeling self-conscious about it. Like
something you'd do when you're in th' house all by yourself and you
know no one is looking. But that isn't all, part of what i had to do was
make up a story for th' skunk to tell, and i had to rap it in time with
th' beat. We did this every night for i don't know how long. Then one
night fynn surprised me.
We've been
homeschooling fynn since he was born. (What parent hasn't been?) For th'
past few years fynn has been really into numbers. Numbers were his
friends. He found a large 5 at hobby lobby one time and bought it with
his allowance. That five became his friend. He played with it like other
kids played with stuffed animals or dolls. He'd have conversations with
5, he'd go to 5's house. 5 would talk to his other friends, and to us.
Anyway, he's always been comfortable with math, and numbers, but he's
always been resistant to reading. We've really been feeling like it's
time for him to learn how to read lately, and have been talking to him
about all th' wonderful things he can do when he knows how to read, but
we've sorta been at a loss as to how to actually go about teaching him
how to read. But then two things came to us, one was our idea, and one
was his.
Our idea: he watches videos on
youtube. So we had him start typing in th' names of th' shows he wants
to watch, or th' keywords of shows he wants to look up. We tell him how
to spell them, all he does is type them in. Often times he remembers and
types them in without our help. Sometimes he won't type them, so we
just do it for him. No big deal, he's learning with every word he types,
and we really want to go at his own pace. But his idea was a lot more
fun.
So one night we get all set up for
a skunk movie, lights turned off (because skunks are nocturnal), beat
goin, me tryin to get into th' groove of th' beat, when fynn says, "ok
skunk, teach me somethin new!" Yes! i think to myself. Ok, th' skunk
says to fynn, S-K-U-N-K skunk, S-K-U-N-K skunk, repeat after me,... and
he does, thinking it is so funny of course. That night we kept it real
simple, spelling skunk, stunk, trunk, junk, and kerplunk, which he
thought was th' funniest of all. And of course we still had to make up a
story- I am a skunk and i really stunk, i live in a hollow trunk and i
don't collect junk, when i jump into th' water i go kerplunk!
Th'
next night we learned th' word movie. S-K-U-N-K skunk, M-O-V-I-E movie.
Then we changed th' U to I on a few words. Skink, Stink, drink, think.
Fynn asked me if skink was a real word. I told him yes, it's a type of
lizard. So th' next day we got on the internet and looked up skinks, and
learned a bit about them. Fynn really likes reptiles, amphibians, and
nocturnal creatures, so that was of great interest to him.
We've
been doing this for a while now, just taking it slow, keeping it silly
and fun. And i want to tell you, it's not a miraculous leap in learning,
just one step at a time, at his own pace. But he likes it, and it was
his decision to learn. The other day, he got on th' computer and typed a
paragraph about snakes. All by himself.
So,
while other six year olds are already reading, i'm not worried about
fynn, he's learning, and i know he's brilliant and will get there when
he's ready. Besides, he's really good at other things high schoolers
can't even do, and why do we all have to learn th' same things at th'
same time anyway?
And one other thing
this showed me clearly. When you join in your autistic loved ones stims,
amazing things can happen. Just try it and see.
