Today was the final day of summer Challenger league bowling for Alex. I am biased, of course but I do believe we had the best team this session. Our lane consisted of Alex, his friends Logan and Brandon, and Logan's little brother. We are all friends - the kids and the parents alike. It makes a world of difference to be on a lane with parents that you are also friends because we tag-team each other's kids, share snacks, and laugh a lot.
Our team is always the slowest group of bowlers and when they put new kids on our lane it doesn't always work out so well. The parents get frustrated because the team might only get in one game of bowling during that 90 minutes when other teams get in two games. The boys tend to like to venture away from the lane in between their turn to go sit at one of the video game machines - this is a new 'habit' for Alex since our lane was closer this session to where the games were. Also, the kids all have to have their fries and 10 condiment cups of ketchup plus drinks and will come back up for a snack while their ball is being returned. I guess they need a little re-charging, hey whatever works.
Today we had a few incidents at bowling with Alex's behavior, yet he bowled a very good game and got 2 spares on his own.
The first incident was that he kept stealing all the green balls from the neighboring lane and sorting the balls on our lane so that greens were on the left and the red (plus one pink for his sister) were on the right. He was standing and even laying over the top of the balls so no one could get them back. Thankfully, the kid and mom on the next lane are also good friends and her son is slightly older and took it in stride.
The second behavior was not surprisingly having to do with the noise. The bowling alley was particularly loud today with the music louder than normal and a lot more loud speaker announcements than normal. Alex sometimes (but not as much as he used to) gets upset with the clapping at the lanes but he especially hates the PA system. When the announcements would come on he would sit down and start screaming about a VOICEOVER ALERT and basically lose it until it stopped. We need to work on that one.Our team is always the slowest group of bowlers and when they put new kids on our lane it doesn't always work out so well. The parents get frustrated because the team might only get in one game of bowling during that 90 minutes when other teams get in two games. The boys tend to like to venture away from the lane in between their turn to go sit at one of the video game machines - this is a new 'habit' for Alex since our lane was closer this session to where the games were. Also, the kids all have to have their fries and 10 condiment cups of ketchup plus drinks and will come back up for a snack while their ball is being returned. I guess they need a little re-charging, hey whatever works.
Today we had a few incidents at bowling with Alex's behavior, yet he bowled a very good game and got 2 spares on his own.
The first incident was that he kept stealing all the green balls from the neighboring lane and sorting the balls on our lane so that greens were on the left and the red (plus one pink for his sister) were on the right. He was standing and even laying over the top of the balls so no one could get them back. Thankfully, the kid and mom on the next lane are also good friends and her son is slightly older and took it in stride.
As my husband put it so aptly today:
"Alex is shouting at everyone in full evil overlord mode. So busy shouting at the peasants he didn't notice he got two spares."
Still, behaviors aside - a good bowling day for the kids and another good season of Challenger Bowling complete. Bowling starts up again in the winter and hopefully we can work on improving some of our problem behaviors. All tips on how to do that are welcome!
1 comments:
Hello, That is a great story. My son also loves bowling. He is only 4 and has a very hard time with the weight of the ball, but has a good time anyhow. He loves all the action and watching everyone else. He also loves standing in front of the ball return in eager anticipation. Unfortunately, he loves to cheer the fellow bowlers on with a little "dance" as they are heading up to bowl. Unfortunately again, he is misunderstanding personal space. But most people find it as entertaining as I do. There are so many great stories to tell of the autism world and I am happy I found a good site to read on. Keep up the good work
Post a Comment