More Harness

We went to the Aquarium yesterday and Mikey agreed to the harness. We are members and go often - it's less expensive than paying admission for the 1 - 1.5 hours we are likely to be there. The boys are very familiar and comfortable with the space. We do try to go when it's likely to be "less" crowded.

There are two floors of indoor exhibits and several outdoor exhibits, and a play area. Grandpa went off with David and Grandma took Mikey in the harness.

The tiniest improvements in Mikey do my heart such good.

He spent time, voluntarily, at many of the exhibits.

He didn't fuss when I needed to use the rest room; and, with only a few reminders, did not open the door until I was done.

He was cooperative when asked to stop for a few moments, or a few extra moments, at an exhibit.

The harness has one additional side-effect. When Mikey has the harness on, people do not question his "odd" behavior. Autism is not a disability that is obvious physically, so when the person's behavior is "off" a little, most people think the caretaker is incompetent or lazy. (In the autism community, we refer to kids without neural disabilities as "Neuro-Typical," or "NT", and not as "normal.") Even when they have major breakdowns, some people don't understand that autism (or something) is the source of the behavior.

When we go to the playground area, he asked, "Harness off, please." I took off the lead but left the harness on, and reminded him to play in the play area. He did.

He keeps looking at us when we are watching him, which we do all the time now. It really bugs him, I can tell; but not watching him could result in disaster. [sigh]

The setup outside is that the play area is adjacent to two of the large, shallow touch pools. These abut the top side of the "large" tank that houses giant (6') rays and sharks. The top side has a railing so a person can look down into the tank; there is another view with a glassed wall where a person can look inside the tank. It's pretty spectacular.

Mikey started to walk around one of the touch pools: up one side, around the edge next to the large tank, and back down to the playground. All highly visible and I followed him. About the 4th time, he stopped to look into the touch pool. Next thing I knew, he had slipped off his sandal and was putting toes into the touchpool.

"No, Mikey! I said, pulling him back. "Fish only! Lie on your belly and touch them." He did.

The next time around, he stopped at the large tank. Suddenly, he threw his leg up onto the rail, as in, he would have jumped in, had I not stopped him. "No, Mikey!" I grabbed him and hugged him tightly -- "Do you want to go home?"

"Yes! Store!" he responded, indicating he was ready for Softie Grandma to buy him something at the Aquarium store. I called Granpa and told him we were ready to go, and to please meet us at the central area.

We stopped at Rubio's (fish tacos) on the way home, and - miracle of miracles - got parking right in front! The boys both did very well, particularly David, and we had a nice meal together, in a public place. Now that's progress.