Being Understood

Some children on the spectrum do not understand, that they are being understood. We were driving back from a family outing. It was very hot and we were stuck in traffic! Riley and Marley both 6, were relatively quiet, playing ‘eye spy’ and asking once or twice, ‘Are we there yet?’ Raya was squirming on her seat. She was yelling and grunting. ‘ I want drink,!’ ‘I need drink, please mummy!’ ‘ no drink!’ We kept telling her, we would get the drink when we stopped, but it was no use, she continued to scream, for what felt like an hour! There was absolutely no way we could make her understand, we would soon stop for drinks. Eventually, we gave her a half filled bottled water, we found in the passenger door. We had no idea how long it had been there, and it was warm to the touch. She settled immediately, sipped one small mouthful of the warm water, held onto the bottle and was calm for rest of journey, which thankfully, was shorter than expected. It’s hard to believe her thirst was suddenly quenched, from a sip of this stale, warm water! It’s more likely, she was happy, that we finally understood what she was asking!

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