a spoon of peas

I received a phone call today from a mother who wanted to ask me a question. “Why is Patrick talking about eating cake or vegetables every time we work on his homework?”

Having been exposed, I had to tell the parent this story:

During a recent therapy session I sat next to 6 year old Patrick while he completed a puzzle. I was watching his strategy for putting the pieces together. As he skillfully interlocked the pieces he announced, “Mr. Chris, this is a piece of cake.”

Seeing that I needed to add some complexity to the activity I replied, “What are you talking about? That’s not a piece of cake. It’s a puzzle.”

Children who have Asperger’s Syndrome sometimes interpret language literally, and as Patrick had a severe difficulty with this I thought I would challenge him a little.

“Why are you saying that the puzzle is a piece of cake? It’s not even a piece of cake – it’s a puzzle of a dinosaur. You don’t make any sense.”

Patrick paused, trying to understand my response. “No, Mr. Chris. It is a piece of cake. But I know it is a puzzle. It is a dinosaur puzzle that is a piece of cake.”

“Well Patrick,” I replied, “now I am really confused, because I thought T-Rex was a meat eater, not a cake eater. I didn’t know that dinosaurs were made of cake.” Patrick’s gears were really turning now, trying to find a way to make sense of my concerns.

Patrick recovered quickly. “Mr. Chris, when something is a ‘piece of cake’ that means that you can do it. And it’s easy so you like to do it.”

I was pleased with his explanation, but persisted anyway, “So if you like to do something and it is easy you call it a ‘piece of cake,’ kind of because eating cake is easy too?”

Patrick was relieved that I was getting his point. “Yes, cake is easy to eat, and dinosaur puzzles are easy to do. So doing a dinosaur puzzle is a piece of cake!”

I needed to throw a wrench back into the conversation, so I added, “What do you call it if something is really hard to do, like writing your name?” Patrick hated handwriting.

Patrick went back to thinking, and then announced “Maybe we should call handwriting something else because it is hard. Handwriting is not a piece of cake. What is something that is hard Mr. Chris?”

“Eating a spoon of peas,” I shot back immediately.

Patrick beamed. “OK, when something is hard, I am going to say that it is a spoon of peas, and when something is easy I can call it a piece of cake!”

This made perfect sense to both of us, and that ended the conversation.

_______________________

The mom was very relieved that her son had a legitimate reason for calling difficult tasks “a spoon of peas.”

Comments

Anonymous said…
I love it! Great result. As I got older though, eating a spoonful of peas became a piece of cake, especially with a little apple sauce on the side.

Greetings from Ireland Chris!
2:05 PM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

On retained primitive reflexes

Each year I receive several emails from colleagues about 'retained primitive reflexes.'  I am also seeing an increased number of reports from local 'health care' providers who are documenting these alleged problems so I thought I would write a summary of my opinion on this topic.   Predatory 'health care' providers including some OTs, PTs, chiropractors, and behavioral optometrists are creating a new 'market' for treating this alleged 'problem.'  Parents should be very wary of these practitioners and other professionals should challenge these practices whenever they are seen. The following is the kind of information that causes concern and was provided to me by a colleague as a sample from a student's IEP: The student continues to demonstrate the following retained primitive reflexes that at times interfere with his ability to demonstrate appropriate adaptive responses: Fear Paralysis Reflex, Moro Reflex, Palmer Reflex, Tonic Labyri
Read more

Deconstructing the myth of clothing sensitivity as a 'sensory processing disorder'

Please note first that there is no formally recognized clinical designation of  'sensory processing disorder.'   It is a term constructed by occupational therapists that has not been formally recognized by the larger medical community. In our clinic we receive many referrals from local pediatricians when parents have concerns about children being overly sensitive to their clothing.  Most often the children referred are from four to seven years old and the families are severely disrupted by the children's behaviors and responses to clothing issues.  Commonly, children will have severely constricted tolerance for certain outfits, want to wear the same clothes repeatedly, complain that clothing is itchy/scratch/bumpy/wiggly/ouchie, and this all leads to disruption of daily dressing routines.  There is no doubt that the behavioral concerns are very real. The pediatricians tend to be appropriately conservative and provide families with good behavioral management suggestions
Read more

A Critical Appraisal of Therapeutic Listening

Image
History: According to Frick (2002, p. 358), auditory training has been used in Europe since the mid-1900s to address sensory processing disorders and these techniques have been recently popularized in the United States. Frick has based her Therapeutic Listening program on the work of Dr. Alfred Tomatis and Dr. Guy Berard, both of whom are French physicians. Both the Tomatis and Berard programs are delivered by specific machines using earphones but these devices do not have FDA approval and have been banned in the United States (Barrett, 2003). Frick (2001) states “With the advent of new technology, similar altered music has become available on compact disc. The discs do not replace either the Tomatis Method or the Berard Method. The compact discs do provide a less intense way to access both the auditory and vestibular systems to impact neural function and integration and are easily available to clinicians in a variety of practice arenas.” The CDs referenced on Frick’s webpages are ass
Read more