An Animal a Week

The wondrous transition in to creative play.. Aethan has been choosing animals to "be." Last week it was a puppy. He would get down on all fours, pant, bark and even lean down in front of you and say "you can pet him!" Although he still does not say "I" "I am" or "My" and "I'm a puppy" came out "you're a puppy," it was still a joyous thing to watch. This week Aethan is a penguin. He's been watching "March of the Penguins," and now he waddles, scoots on his belly, gets between my legs and makes a very strange half-cry half-goat sound that apparantly comes from the penguins. He's also used his new penguin status to avoid eating certain foods. This seems so small and trivial to those with nuero-typical 3 year olds, but to someone with autism this is a very big step in a good direction.