Mindreading. One word, no space. Not referring to David Copperfield style parlour tricks - I'm back to thinking about theory of mind, understanding emotions, understanding people, all that jazz. I'm exploring the Small Boy's interpersonal side. In the Autism research community , "mindreading" - one word - is the buzzword that describes all that - the ability to work out through your eyes and ears what's going on inside somebody else's head. Particularly, their emotions.
One of the most effective weapons in our armoury at the moment is Thomas the Tank Engine. The Small Boy loves Thomas. Well, no surprise there - he is, after all, a Small Boy.
I love Thomas too but for a different reason. I love him for the faces. Clear, round, single colour - perfect for thinking about expressions.
"Look. There goes Thomas going along the track. What sort of a face has he got on? Happy face? Yes, I think that's a happy face. Thomas likes going on his tracks. Uh-oh. There's a cow on the line. Beep beep! She's not getting out of the way. What sort of a face has Thomas got now? Look at those lines on his forhead. Those are grumpy lines. I think Thomas has got a grumpy face on. He doesn't like having a cow in the way."
Thomas gets us happy face, sad face, surprised face and grumpy face, so far. I'm looking for more. I think we can probably get in bored face, excited face - maybe scared face (do trains ever get scared?) before we've exhausted the emotional range of Thomas the Tank Engine. After that, I'll be looking for some good boy-friendly books that do body language. Not much of that in Thomas.
We go to Social Skills group every week at the moment. The Speech Therapists in charge report that the Small Boy has a limited range of emotions he understands - happy, sad, anything beyond that is "funny face". But I'm not so sure. Where it counts - understanding emotions in context - he's way ahead of that. Witness the following dinnertime scene...
The chief protagonists - one Small Girl. One grumpy, wriggly, squirmy, whiny Small Girl. And one Daddy. I forget what her issue was, TBH. I do recall she was pushing the parental buttons for all she was worth. And the viscious spiral escalated.
SG: Squirm squirm squirm
D: Instruct Small Girl to Sit Up With Legs Forward.
SG: Whine. Squirm in the other direction
D: Instruct Small Girl to SIT UP NOW and EAT FOOD.
SG: Whine more. Listlessly pick up fork in two fingers. Trail it towards food at..........about.......thissssssss.......s....p....e....e...d..........
Drop food in lap due to inadequate hold on fork.
D: Instruct Small Girl to SIT UP, HOLD FORK PROPERLY and EAT FOOD.
SG: WHINE! Get up, run into bedroom, slam door
D: Silently rise, follow Small Girl to bedroom.
Small Boy's comment. "Daddy want to Smack Julia."
Well labelled.
It sounds like he can read his family's emotions in context because he's had experience of what each of the faces mean. There's an event consequence to it. Maybe the faces at the Social whatever are missing those consequences?
ReplyDeleteDunno. Just positing a hypothesis.
The thing that would be interesting to see, is if he was able to pick it from someone who he is not as familiar with. Say if I followed Small whiny girl to her room. :D
We'll have to try it some time *evilgrin*. Mind you, I expect much less whining over the holidays, since current Core Whining Opportunities (though obviously not the above one) seems to be closely associated with having to get up for school...
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