the new

Here's how Martin deals with the new.......at least sometimes.

Today we decided for a trip to the Cleveland Zoo. Since our zoo membership at Akron gets us in free in Cleveland as well, the stakes were low. A little bit of gasoline. A little bit of time. We hoped for the best. And we certainly visited a nice zoo. The primates were especially fun. Two areas of the zoo were full of a variety of monkeys, gorillas, and orangutans. My baby daughter loved it. She spent a good 10 minutes communing with a tiny spider monkey that crawled up to the glass just inches from her. Martin concentrated on some ramps and the tram that took people around the zoo. If he wasn't thus occupied, he asked to go to the Akron Zoo.

Here's how Martin deals with the new.......other times.

Martin and his Dad work nearly every day on Spanish using Rosetta Stone software. It's a perfect program for autistics, combining words and pictures to aid memory. Martin not only knows a lot of Spanish, he has entire sections of the Rosetta Stone program memorized. He says phrases from the program and then imitates the noise the program makes when you get answers right. Typically, Martin answers questions and points at pictures while my husband operates the mouse. Last night, Martin said that he wanted to try. He sat in the office chair, put his tiny hand on the mouse, and navigated his way through several screens. He had never done it before. We hadn't told him how.

We never know what new things will work and what new things won't. Maybe we should try all new things inside the boundaries of the Akron Zoo?