First Day of April

Today, I pulled my high-functioning autism (HFA) group since I have an IEP tmrw during their usual time. Three filtered in while TCL was filling me in on the latest craziness (N320 is likely transferring at the end of the year!). My fourth didn't show up until the end of the period so I saw him individually.

This one is so refreshing to see. He is the one that always smiles, laughs, and giggles (not out of context or inappropriately). I can't remember if I blogged about him before but I once said to him, "You're always laughing and smiling! Do you ever have a bad day?" He paused and thought for a second, then smiled and said, "Nope." So today, I had the lovely opportunity to really focus on his communication and social needs. I started with a functional home routine piece and opened it up with, "So, last time you mentioned you have some responsibilities at home. What chores are your responsibility?"

HFA-V: I have to clean my bedroom...and put everyone's shoes away."
Me: Do you put everyone's shoes on a shoe rack? [Subtly trying to work on semantics/vocabulary].
HFA-V looks at me kind of funny and says: No, I just put them in place. [and giggles a little bit.]
Me trying to be silly yet also probe how literal he thinks or how much he can pick up on sarcasm: OOOO, I bet that is your favorite chore!
HFA-V: Yes.
Well, that totally backfired. Me: It is?!?
HFA-V starts cracking up: April Fool!

I was laughing hysterically! Part of me was laughing b/c I was pleased at his sense of humor! My HFA group tends to be stoic, take things literally, and doesn't usually understand humor...due to their autism. Teaching figurative language (e.g., idioms) has been quite a challenge. But holy snikeys, their vocabulary blows me away!

In the session before (with my 2 HFAs and 1 SLD), I conducted a convergent-naming activity (i.e., the game "Blurt"), and so I read something like, "Any of numerous scaly, legless, sometimes venomous reptiles having a long, tapering, cylindrical body and found in most tropical and temperate regions." HFA-D "blurts" (hence the game's name), "snake! That was too easy!" (which really isn't for my SLI, SLD, or APD kids who don't have autism). Since the kiddos are quite competitive, HFA-R turned to HFA-D and said, "Oh yeah? I bet you don't know where an African Rock Python is from." Before I could process whether it was a joke/riddle or not, HFA-D says, "They're from Africa." HFA-R says, "Doh! How did you know!"

=X

I was like, WHAT! What just happened here?? LOL
They were being serious! HFA-R seriously thought he could stump HFA-D and HFA-D thought he totally outsmarted HFA-R b/c he knew the answer!