Proud dad moment with my ASD 6yo Son.
So a proud dad moment for me. My 6 year old son is diagnosed with level 2 Autism. He’s semi-verbal, probably equivalent of a neurotypical 2-3 year old. He is very restrictive in what he eats. Literally only Mac and Cheese, eggs and pancakes, cheese pizza and pasta.
The weather has been very nice the past few weeks out here in Vegas, so I have been doing a lot of grilling. I usually make 2 meals, one for us and one for my son. Today when we were in the grocery market I asked him what do you want for dinner and he said “Fire Grill!” So I thought what would be the easiest thing to grill, and of course Hot Dogs! I asked if he would be ok trying hot dogs (he’s never had them before, and we have tried). He said yes, so ok now problem. We can try and if he doesn’t like them I’ll eat them.
I asked if he wanted to help, and he said yes. So I had him do everything, start the grill, cut open the dog packet use the tongs to put them on the grill, turn them every three to for minutes, pull them off, open the buns, and lastly put dog on bun. He did the whole thing.
The he. The moment of truth, would he actually eat it. This can be a very tense moment with an autistic child. I showed him how I ate mine, and he picked his up and took a bite. Happy humming and hand flapping followed. Great success. He ate about 80% of his dog and a smattering or the lasagna
I learned how to grill from my dad and we worried that I might not be able to pass it on to my son. But here we are with at least one thing he can grill.