Tuesday, May 12, 2009

senses

in kindergarten we're studying the five senses so i spent today helping my friends with autism complete a 5 senses sort. until we sat down to work i hadn't thought much about the different ways my friend perceives the world, and that the senses he uses for some objects might not be the ones a typically developing child uses.

the sort came with 20 simple pictures that had clear (or somewhat clear) answers. the sun goes under the 'see' category, the rose under the 'smell', the trumpet under the 'hear'.

we were doing ok with just some some simple confusions (he put the rose under see. yes, you do see the rose. can't really argue there...)

we came to a picture of a small rug. i pointed to the little rug the teacher has outside the door to the bathroom.
"oh" he said, and put it under "smell". i didn't want to test his theory, but, for a child so attentive to smells in general, he is probably right. it probably smells after some years hanging out right outside the bathroom of a kindergarten room.

for the picture of the crayon he pointed to the hearing column.
"can you hear a crayon?" i teased, and held the crayon up to his ear.

"yes!" he argued. he took the crayon from my hand and banged it loudly on the table.

and that was when i decided it was a stupid activity and i'd stop trying to convince him to perceive the world the same way the rest of us do.

2 comments:

Kids, Canines, and Chaos said...

I'm glad you gave in and let him use his own senses. You were right, what was the use in trying to convince him to see the world the way you do?

I also work with students with disabilities. I'm intrigued with your views on many things.

Thanks for sharing.

Sarah said...

Totally understandable according to his not-so-common common sense :)