He's ready for a wedding or a party, Who's inviting?

So a few weeks ago, I shared how the first week at music/movement therapy class went - or rather didn't.. It was tough to see Alex meltdown and struggle over the environment. He has come so far over the years that maybe I have taken a lot for granted. Maybe I needed that wake-up call/smack in my face to remind me that after all, my son is autistic and has sensory issues. So many of his sensory hurdles have been put behind us, so I hated seeing him have a hard time.

 This is video from the first week - doing the YMCA song and you can see him doing it, but "shhushing"  at the kids around him to be quiet.

The next week, before class I made a point of going to YouTube and we looked up videos of the YMCA, how to do the macarena, and how to do the cha-cha slide.  I let him watch them over and over again.  He loves YouTube and I purposefully limit his exposure to it because 1) he could get into stuff he shouldn't on there and 2) he will watch the same movie over and over and over again.. We call that "You Tube Stimming" and I know that I'm not alone in this...many of the autistic kids I know like to do this.   So I purposefully encouraged YouTube stimming on videos that had to do with learning these 'party/wedding dances'.

Here's what happened that second week when they did the YMCA song.  Watch around the 1 minute mark for a remarkable Alex!

What a big difference, huh?  Instead of the child who was telling others to be quiet. He was the loudest one.  Ok, so we need to work on that a bit.

He also enjoyed learning the Electric Slide, with the help of one of the moms. And his favorite, they did Eenie Meenie (a Justin Bieber song). 

Week 3  showed even more improvement and he is now doing all of the above dances plus the Cha-Cha Slide and the Macarena, independently.

This week will be out last session, Week 4 - and  I know he'll be sad for "music class" to end.  What a fun time. And another sensory hurdle has been jumped!