{"id":3480,"date":"2015-04-14T09:30:33","date_gmt":"2015-04-14T13:30:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/grafton.local\/?p=3480"},"modified":"2015-04-08T11:53:59","modified_gmt":"2015-04-08T15:53:59","slug":"clown-to-left-jokers-to-the-right-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.grafton.org\/clown-to-left-jokers-to-the-right-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Clown to Left, Jokers to the Right"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>The following blog was written by Chris Liss whose son Bobby is served at Grafton\u2019s Winchester campus.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Birthday parties are high-risk social events, especially for children with socially inappropriate behaviors, like hitting people and throwing things. Our son\u2019s newly modified ability \u2013 via 15 minute increments and awarded smiley stickers &#8211; to control his impulsive hitting afforded Bobby a 5<sup>th<\/sup> Birthday Party invitation from a classmate.\u00a0 Other than family birthdays, this was his first ever invitation. There had been a near miss invitation earlier that year, but that was revoked when Bobby slapped a parent across the face when she kneeled down to ask him to repeat his question.<\/p>\n<p>It would be a low key, backyard party boasting a bouncy house and a magician.\u00a0 Two loves \u2013 jumping and magic! The clock was ticking, so we used this Smiley Sticker\/15 Minutes of Fame System to practice party etiquette and not giving away the magician\u2019s secrets. After reviewing lessons, Bobby chose a \u201cbehave\u201d word that represented all he had practiced.\u00a0 \u201cFour.\u201d\u00a0 Bobby loved numbers. I would use this word to remind him to use all newly honed skills.<\/p>\n<p>We arrived at 2:00 pm.\u00a0 Adults were inside and children, many children, were outside. Over several weeks, Bobby earned enough smiley stickers for three disposable cameras to use at the party.\u00a0 Starting in his comfort zone, Bobby snapped photos of adults and asked their weight. Most graciously complied.\u00a0 When Bobby went looking for a bathroom scale for proof of the Truth, I lured him outside with the hope of a jump in the bouncy house.<\/p>\n<p>After heated negotiations about taking photos of the compressors (we hadn\u2019t practiced ignoring compressors), Bobby said hello to T and made his way to the bouncy house, a camera in each hand.\u00a0 These cameras were assurance that he would not hit anyone (his hands were full) and he wouldn\u2019t throw anything. He was <em>not<\/em> letting go of those hard-earned cameras!<\/p>\n<p>I said, \u201cFour\u201d loudly enough for Bobby to hear and he obediently got in line. At his turn, however, he refused to remove his shoes.\u00a0 I didn\u2019t know you had to take your shoes off for a bouncy house!\u00a0 He <em>needed<\/em> his shoes <em>on<\/em>. \u00a0He still wore shoes in the swimming pool! I arrived in time to hear him politely say, \u201cI waited in line and now it\u2019s my turn,\u201d still clutching the cameras. Of course we hadn\u2019t practiced giving up the cameras and taking off your shoes. He <em>was<\/em> polite about it. We <em>had<\/em> practiced polite.<\/p>\n<p>Five year old children are rules driven and at this point many of them were screaming, \u201cGet him out!\u00a0 He\u2019s gonna break it!\u201d\u00a0 I crawled in and coaxed him out, mumbling an apology. I wanted to scream and let everyone know how much we had practiced being polite and waiting in line.<\/p>\n<p>T\u2019s mom, a gracious host, always had stressed that you should leave on a positive note, so we stayed for the magician. Many children on the spectrum do not like costumes. Bobby would never dress up at Halloween, screamed at the Mall Santa, and reacted badly to clowns.\u00a0 We never thought to practice clowns. In Bobby\u2019s world and mine frankly, magicians looked like Dad with cards and coins. This magician was a clown. Bobby bolted. I yelled, \u201cFour, four!\u201d\u00a0 Projectile cameras narrowly missed the magic clown who ducked just in time, just like anyone on a golf course would duck when they heard \u201cfore!\u201d<\/p>\n<p>We left. It was 2:22 pm according to the clock in my car dashboard.\u00a0 He lasted more than 15 minutes!<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The following blog was written by Chris Liss whose son Bobby is served at Grafton\u2019s Winchester campus.<\/p>\n<p>Birthday parties are high-risk social events, especially for children with socially inappropriate behaviors, like hitting people and throwing things. Our son\u2019s newly modified ability \u2013 via 15 minute increments and awarded smiley stickers &#8211; to control his impulsive hitting afforded Bobby a 5th Birthday Party invitation from a classmate.  Other than family birthdays, this was his first ever invitation. There had been a near miss invitation earlier that year, but that was revoked when Bobby slapped a parent across the face when she kneeled down to ask him to repeat his question.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":56,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[17,31],"tags":[47],"class_list":["post-3480","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-autism","category-behavioral-healthcare","tag-autism-best-practices"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Clown to Left, Jokers to the Right - Grafton<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.grafton.org\/clown-to-left-jokers-to-the-right-2\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Clown to Left, Jokers to the Right - Grafton\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The following blog was written by Chris Liss whose son Bobby is served at Grafton\u2019s Winchester campus.  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