I promised that I would write about why Emmett's school report led to so many meltdowns over the last week or so. The reason can be summed up in two words, *literal interpretation. *
The instructions provided simply said to *write about three things you like to do in the snow. *Seems pretty simple and straight forward, right? Wrong.. Emmett was so fucking stressed out over this because he takes the instructions quite literally, and is unwilling to deviate from them in any way for fear of breaking the rules or lying.
When we sat down to work on this last week, we began by coming up with three things he liked to do in the snow. That proved to be so much more difficult than it sounds. The way Emmett's brain works, he interpreted the instructions to mean that he could only write about things he enjoys doing, while physically standing in the snow.
I should mention that in our neighborhood, it's not always safe to play outside, even during the winter. It should also be said that Emmett freaks out if snow comes into contact with his skin. His hands are okay but nowhere else. Things like snow angels are out the the question.
The boys have all played outside in the snow but we haven't had enough snow to do things like make a snowman or snow fort in a really long time.
The meltdowns occurred because Emmett was so afraid that if he listed something that he couldn't prove he actually enjoyed doing while he was actually standing in snow, he'd get in trouble.
He wouldn't write that he liked to build a snowman, make snow angels or go sledding because while he's done most of those things before, he doesn't remember doing it and didn't want to lie.
I even made a special trip to the school to meet with his teacher, so we could figure out how best to proceed.
She explained to Emmett and I that he could simply write about things he loved to do in the winter or the snow and he could even type it. All she really wanted was for him to piece a few sentences together into a simple paragraph.
Even after that, it took a great deal of work to help him through his literally interpretation of what he was supposed to do.
Earlier this week, we did finally get there and he ended up doing a great job. The whole thing took him roughly ten minutes and that was it. We went through all that shit for something that took him ten minutes in the end.
These things pop up all the time because of the way Emmett's interprets everything so literally. It's really tough on Lizze and I but it's got to be even worse for Emmett.
There really isn't anything that I know of to make things like this easier. We continue to help him learn to better navigate these things when they come up. This is one of those things that are hard wired into him and it's going to take time and a whole lot of patience..
Do any of you have kids who tend to do the same thing when it comes to interpreting things? Does it present problems? How does your child react and what have you done to help them?
Please leave your comments below... ☺
