So Kyle’s doing something the past few days that he’s really never done before. He’s trying to trick us. He’s trying to play us. Let me explain.
Kyle is pretty much potty trained (knock on wood). I wrote about our potty training methods HERE.
Now what I mean by potty trained is that he doesn’t have many accidents. He still can’t communicate that he has to go, but he can hold it and he will wait til someone takes him…or at home or in familiar surroundings he will drop his pants and enter the bathroom and “void”.
The dropping his pants. That’s where the trickiness comes in.
Lately he is OBSESSED with looking at his reflection in the mirror. I recently wrote a blog post about it with video of him laughing looking in the mirror (read).
He’s gone thru this mirror obsession before but never to this magnitude. He will go from mirror to mirror around the house and look at his reflection and laugh and laugh.
He will also find his reflection in other things you and I would never think of. He finds his reflection in the window, and the bathroom tiles, and the door knobs, etc, etc.
But back to the going from room to room. At night he goes back and forth between mirrors in his playroom…
the dining room…
and the bathroom….
The dining room mirror play is kinda is dangerous. The bathroom mirror play is dangerous and destructive. At least once a month he knocks out the pipes under the sink and water goes over the bathroom floor. So, at points during the night, the wife and I are literally playing goalie and pulling him off the bathroom sink every 3 minutes.
“No climbing! Get down! What are you doing in here? Do you have to go potty? Do you wanna sit down and try to go pee-pee or cocky? No, well that’s the only reason to come in here, so get out!” 🙂
So the past few days we’ve locked the bathroom door at points…like for the 19 minutes when the wife & I try to sit down to eat dinner.
Now, in the past, during the other phases where he was mirror obsessed, we would lock the door too, but we had to be careful that when he did have to pee or poop (go cocky) we got there in time. In the past we’d find him with pants & underwear off, completely bottomless, at the bathroom door desperately trying to get in… or in the worse case scenario– (only once or twice)– he would pee on the floor if we didn’t get to him in time. It’s was like a classic case of “The Boy Who Cried Wolf”… 🙂
So the last thing we want this time is a potty training regression. So during those 19 minutes when we are scarfing down dinner I’m continually checking to see if he’s bottomless.
And for the past few days, maybe for the first time ever, it seems like he’s trying to play us…he’s trying to trick us.
We will see him run past us bottomless and say, “I’m sorry buddy, do you have to pee, I’ll open the door” and he goes in and goes straight to climbing on the sink & looking/laughing in the mirror! “Do you have to go or not? What’s going on here?!” I make him sit on the toilet and nothing. He doesn’t have to go. He’s been tricking us.
He’s used his noggin to figure out that being bottomless means bathroom access…
And as much as the goalie work of pulling him off the bathroom sink every 3 minutes is mind-numbingly annoying… his sneakiness is something I’m kinda proud of…
And I guess sneakiness is a kind of progress…
So you can file this as another example of what I wrote about in my post “What Progress Looks Like On My Corner Of Autism Avenue” (read)
THE END!!
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I think sneakiness is progress! My daughter is totally sneaky sometimes which will drive you clinically insane, but also makes me think "wait a minute, look at the thought process that went into you tricking me...." By the way, she is STILL staying dry thanks to your potty schedule :)! Yes, we too have to remind her to go like once an hour, but whatever, I'll take it!
That is fantastic, made me giggle. I'd be so proud if my son would do that...and yes i could see how it would drive you nuts. As for the mirror, my son will never look at his reflection, so I love how the king gets so much joy from his!! Merry Christmas AD and family. =)
Sounds like my 11-year old! EXCEPT mine is constantly swiping food and dropping it down the bathroom drain as he stims on his reflection in the mirror.
very big (although annoying) progress! Our son is obsessed with getting his string wet and will also drive us nuts with the bathroom. We have also locked the door...with the same issue, wet pants or a tricky.
Not so much sneaky as clever!! Good putting things together Kyle! Cause and effect, you have to love it.
I love it when the wheels turn- no matter how annoying the behavior is. I actually said "I think my daughter is trying to manipulate me" in an IEP meeting the other day and meant it in a good way. I was proud of her too.
Congrats! Your kid is trying to play you!!
Danielle Fisher
Mother of girl, 6y, ASD
Great Progress. As I said before, I have seen nothing but progress since they upped Ky's depakote. Could it by chance-who knows? But getting great progress notes for 2 months straight is wonderful! Have a very Merry!
Way to go, Kyle! That's some good progress right there in the cognitive skills department. If nothing else, he sees cause and effect to an extent and doesn't see it so literally. That's amazing! Woohoo!
Brilliant! Like Diane said, I think "clever" more than tricky or sneaky! I celebrate good problem solving - even if it is actually annoying!
love that he is doing more things... sneaky or not. I think he knows than we all know about some things... as all autistic children do..... thanks for sharing... i am becoming Autism Granma soon.. getting my granson out of foster care..ya hoo... long and fun road ahead.