Celebrating Mischief

Several times a day a parent finds herself/himself redirecting a toddler's activity. "How many times do I have to tell you?" is the anthem of having a child.

Spending each day yearning for normal childhood development makes Bruce and I very aware of how these frustrating toddler behaviours are a good thing - even when we've said "No, please" for the 100th time.

Yesterday is a perfect case in point.

We were touring a private school for children who have autism in our quest for a "structured nursery program". Athough I appreciate what the psychologist was suggesting about his social learning needs, I still think Torran would benefit from a more behavioural therapeutic approach. This school provides both aspects in a small kindergarden class run by teachers who are also autism therapy trained. They also have a 1:1 program places students in a small group, each with an instructor.

In the face of other "enhanced" nursery schools which either have a wait list or aren't getting back to me yet, it's an attractive sounding program. The september program is three half days a week, which still give me lots of opportunity to integrate him into programs with non-developmentally challenged children.

Anyways, back to mischief...
We were ending the tour and approaching the front door, when I noticed that Torran grabbed a binder from a side table near the door and put it on the floor. I thought he was getting into his usual "clear everything off the surface" mode, which he does sometimes for no specific purpose. Then he stepped up on the small binder and reached up for the light switch.

Amazing!! This is GREAT problem solving:
-see light switch: understand it turns the lights on and off; understand that it is in the on position and have the desire to put it in the off position (plus the fine motor skills to achieve this)
-understand the light switch is too far away to reach (I don't think he attempted to first to figure this out, either)
-scan a new environment and be able to pick out an object that provides elevation from a table of items...requires also the understanding of elevation
-figure out where to put this elevation, and put it there properly
-understand that in order to use the elevation, he has to step up and reach further
Not only did he accomplish this new skill set of problem solving FOR THE FIRST TIME, but he did it in a brand new environment that was noisy and distracting - that's generalization of skills to different environments which is another important developmental skill.

My initial thought was the instinctive "no no no" but as I approached him it rapidly dawned on me what cognitive processing he went through to be a little mischief maker. Instead of scolding him, myself, Bruce and the program director (who was giving us the tour) celebrated his achievement in this attempt to get up to no good.