Unexpected life lessons!


I've learnt over the last two years to know my audience, and to adapt the teaching methods accordingly to each child, who will respond to the information with their individual autistic mindset. 

Kira is logical, rational and calm for the most part, so in regards to unexpected life lessons she would learn about the theory in a lesson easily, absorbing the knowledge in a factual manner. It wouldn't personally upset her. 

Sophia is a worrier, with high levels of anxiety, and has a vivid imagination. She tends to panic when something out of the ordinary occurs. This response is the flip of the coin in terms of an autistic response. 

She would not benefit from having lessons in advance of life emergencies, as she would simply worry that all these scenarios would happen at any moment. Consequently she usually works alongside us when these eventualities occur in our daily lives. 

She's witnessed a boiler breaking down in winter, and losing electricity - all normal, temporary life house emergencies. We have taken the opportunity to teach her the appropriate response in these scenarios. 

The exception with Sophia is when the fire alarm goes off unexpectedly. In theory she knows what to do in event of an actual fire (which we have never experienced). However her sensory issues prevents her from being able to respond appropriately to the alarm ringing out. Emotion and adrenaline takes over in the moment, and she is overtaken with fear and pain from the noise. 

Yesterday morning was a chance for another important life lesson, as we woke up to a reduced water supply. The water pipe had burst in the area, and we only had one tap semi working with low pressure. The usual morning lessons were shelved and I asked Sophia to test all the taps in the house and report back her findings. 

I explained the reason behind this emergency, and that it was temporary. I explained we needed to fill large containers up with water just in case we were to lose the last tap and she helped me do that. We also stuck a container outside because it was raining, which she observed over the course of the day to see how much rainwater we could collect. Her scientific conclusion was that this method was ineffectual for the water needs required for a family. 

We filled the rice cooker and saucepans with water for all meals for the day. She helped me bring in emergency bottles of water from the garage for drinking. I explained that baths, dishwashers and washing machines were not to be used to conserve the supply, until it had been restored. 

She was happy, not panicked at all, and she will know for next time what the drill is. She was proud of herself for helping Mummy to collect water for the family. 

I had containers of water all around my kitchen for hours and I had to guard them from the other two who thought this was a perfect excuse to have a huge pool party! 😂


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