I cannot believe the amazing things done by Lego Lover in recent times. He has made so many leaps in his social interaction that it’s very much like having an almost different child. Emphasis is on almost.  Several weeks ago we were at a family lunch and the normal behavior for Lego Lover is to keep a wide berth between himself and just about everyone else. This has always been especially true for the cousins. This particular weekend was the occasion of my nephew’s birthday and it just so happened he received two different Lego sets. Enter Lego Lover and his expertise with Lego. What eventuated was a certain amount of interaction between Lego Lover and the cousins. We adults all watched with dropped jaws as he carried on some conversations. It continued to be amazing because he joined in at the playground for a bit and then sat comfortably with his cousins on the swing out on the back patio for awhile.

We thought this could have been a one-off event but it was repeated to some degree not long afterwards as we visited the home of the cousins. Only the uncle and the two younger cousins were at home but Lego Lover again joined in with some of the play and was very comfortable. I think Lego Lover must have allowed some of his self-imposed restraints to be eased a bit on that first time and so he has had more confidence since then. We’ve not had a further occasion for him to visit with his cousins but I feel somewhat assured that he will continue to be more at ease in their presence, at the very least.

So this brings me up to a visit last week with another boy with Asperger’s. Lego Lover has “met” this boy a few times in the past but would never have anything to do with him. The other boy recently started homeschooling and his mum has been in regular contact in hopes of working out some sort of relationship between the boys. We didn’t have any particular expectations on the first visit but we made sure both had their Nintendo devices and their Pokemon games. The other boy has problems understanding about personal space and was a bit too far into Lego Lover’s space at first. But after a while both were playing their games and eventually talking to each other. Again, I was quite please but it was a jaw-dropping moment. That’s not to say all went smoothly. The other boy has a whole collection of cheats he has used to level his Pokemon to what I guess is the highest level. Lego Lover isn’t happy with that and refused to battle him after a while due to the unfair advantage carried by the other boy. It wasn’t an issue that was immediately resolved but we two mothers mediated to some degree. It worked out to be a learning experience for both. We are hoping to have regular meetings of the two boys and they have now exchanged a couple messages by email.

As a side note, I would also like to point out the amazing thing the other boy did. We went into the cafe at the park and this boy went up to the counter on his own, ordered his serving of chips (fries) and paid on his own. He did a beautiful job and was extremely polite.  He was on his own, with me just behind him in case help was needed. It was also very impressive.