A Lesson in Flexibility

In our every day attempts to work with SmallBoy's Asperger's, we try to teach him about flexibility - being okay with things, that change happens, that sometimes you have to bend a little. We had the perfect opportunity last night at his T-ball game.

It was a beautiful evening for a baseball game and SmallBoy's team was winning BIG. It was finally his turn to bat. He made a great hit, right to the shortstop, who had a great throw and beat him to the plate. The runner on third came in to score and SmallBoy was out, but had the R.B.I. This is his 4th year in t-ball since we fudged his birthdate so he could start early. He has been in this situation before and watched other team mates in this situation. He knows that it's ok to be out at first. He knows the importance of the R.B.I. Last night, none of that mattered. He was crushed that he wasn't on base. He wanted to score. The team was on a roll and he had the winning energy to keep moving. When this happened, it brought everything to a halt.

SmallBoy came over in need of a hug. I gave him one and then told him to go back and sit on the bench with his teammates and congratulated him on the R.B.I. Well, he wasn't about to go away. He wanted me to make everything ok again, so we talked about how he needed to be ok with not being on base. We talked about how sometimes it is important that the batter gets thrown out so that the runner on third can score. We talked about how the shortstop had the choice to throw him out at first or the runner out at home and he, the shortstop, had to be flexible to allow the run in to stop another baserunner. We went over this time and time again, until he could repeat it back to me, until I was sure that he was okay with it. He went back to the bench and his team went on to win by slaughter! I LOVEt-ball!