He uses PECS (Picture Exchange Communication System) to form a sentence, and at 16 he is still learning more symbols within the system.
His teacher told me at our recent meeting that he was asked what fruit he likes to eat.
He was shown pictures of a variety of fruit, and he had to put each picture into either a 'yes' or 'no' column, to say if he liked eating them or not.
He put each item of fruit into the 'yes' column, and none into the 'no'.
When the teacher told me this, I knew what she was going to say next!
When seeing all the fruit he apparently liked to eat, she presented him with a piece of each, to eat.
His verbal response was a resounding "no"!
J doesn't like fruit. He loves vegetables, but fruit is something he's always shied away from.
This task shows that J is still not comprehending the choice of 'yes' and 'no' when given the option.
It's something the college and I will be working on with him.
In another page of his work book, he had written a sentence down, describing what he had done during the Christmas holidays. He is assisted with the words by staff, as he can copy the writing someone else does, but cannot write a sentence by himself. The process from saying something, to writing it down isn't there yet. I'm not sure he even understands that what he is copying down is what he's just said.
I hope you understand what I've tried to convey here - it makes sense to me, and I hope I've explained it clearly.
This is what he wrote.....
Now, bare in mind, he is 16. In the UK the legal age to drink alcohol is 18, but under 18's are permitted in a lot of pubs, but minus the alcohol consumption.
We didn't visit a pub of any description, and it made me laugh when I read it.
Does he want to go to a pub, but can't tell me?
Probably not.
I think he was asked what he did over the holidays, and he replied "park", as he loves to go to the local playground and play on the swings. I believe the way he said "park" was misconstrued as 'pub' and he was given the words to write down.
The second part, where he says his favourite present was chocolate, is true. Absolutely no doubt about that at all!
He received various chocolate gifts, and they were eaten in under 20 minutes flat.
He also received a yard stick Jaffa Cake tube, which had four boxes of the cakes (biscuits?) in.
These were rationed out to him, as he would have eaten them all in one go, and made himself feel very sick.
I have written about his love of Jaffa Cakes a few times over the years.
I still reference 'Jaffa Cake Mountain' to people, as it's still a funny story to me.
You can find two posts I wrote here >> Jaffa Cake Mountain
and here >> The Jaffa Cake Disappointment
Happy reading!
