This morning was tough on Jack. As I worked with him he covered his eyes with his little hands and hid. He then crawled under the blanket and took a little minute before coming out again. When he came out from under the blanket he had his binoculars on. I must capture his binoculars…he pulls his little hands up to his eyes and peeks out as if he is looking at the world through a pair of binoculars. He pulls them out whenever he is unsure. That is our signal to help him or to give him space to take it all in.
His therapists have said that when Jackson makes eye contact it is as if he is taking a thousand pictures all at once. It is over whelming for his sensory system. So he withdrawls and avoids it.
I have asked him for his eyes for months. “Jackson, where are Mommy’s eyes” or “find Mommy’s eyes”. It took a while but he learned and now he gives them to me freely.
But now they want him to learn to give his eyes without asking, as a natural part of his communication. Only, it doesn’t come very naturally. In fact, I am shocked as he will give me eye contact almost any time but in the context that they are teaching him, he will not. For the first time I can see how it is all related. How his communication can not go forward until he learns this piece.
So I push gently. He loves the game. But I watch him tire quickly. Those nano seconds of eye contact are stimulating. So much so, we can only do a few rounds before he needs a break. It is amazing to wintess, and I find myself longing for that eye contact as if he was competing for olympic gold. When he makes it, the whole room erupts in happy.
This photograph was taken after our therapy. After he had rested. Blurry as it is, it is precious to me. For he says it all with his eyes.
