Intensifying Imagination

The promised post!

I did a post sometime ago about Austin telling little tales mostly about the invisible man, when he first did this, we found out that is was a good sign of development.  Well, he has gone from a 2 to 10!  His desire to conceal the fact that he cut his hair was extreme for him, very out of character, but a good sign.  When he tried to conceal something else, I decided to confront the situation, not letting him know I knew about his haircut.  (What he was trying to hide is trivial but could be sensitive to him so I will not disclose the facts, just to say, it was not a big deal.)  Austin and I had a chat so we could resolve the situation.

I questioned Austin on why he wouldn't tell me about such a small thing that really was not an issue at all.  He said because he thought he would get "in trouble" and be sent to his room for a time-out.  He also was afraid of losing his Wii or DS.  I asked him, would he ever be in trouble for something so insignificant, he said "no" so why wouldn't he tell me?  (He rarely gets a time-out, it is usually if he and Kaleigh are fighting.)  I explained to him that I did not want him lying to me and trust is very important.  Lying can hurt trust.  He trusts me and I trust him, that is important to him.  I told him we had discussed enough at that time and would talk about it after school.

I took the kids to school and after I dropped Kaleigh off, a light bulb went off, I got it!!!  The night before I heard Austin crying in his room so I went to see what was wrong.  He told me he was afraid.  Afraid of what?  Spiders.  (Oh those spiders!)  He believes that there are spiders coming out of the ceiling where a repair was done.  There are not but he is convinced they are creeping around his room.  He went on for a few minutes describing in detail how they come out and go all over the walls.  Really?  I was floored on the amount of small details he described, it was astonishing!  I told him that there are no spiders but this did not settle him so I took him to my room and let him play on my computer for a while.  He was distracted and there was no talk of spiders for the rest of the night; he went to bed without incident.

After I picked up Austin from school, I asked him if he was afraid to be in his room for time-out if he got in trouble.  He said "No!  I am not afraid of anything!"  The way he said it was with such pride and bravery.  Then, he squeaked out, without almost missing a beat, "except spiders ..."  He told me he is only afraid of the spiders in his room at night but he is not afraid of anything else!  Not only is his imagination, speech and comprehension developing but now bravery too!  A lot of changes, all wonderful!

Austin is doing much better and we have had no problems with the spiders.  We put up a moon light over his bed that comes on automatically when it gets dark.  Way too bright for those creepy spiders!  Austin is sleeping soundly and is as happy as ever! ;)

All the best!  *HUGS*