Connecting Exercise

Two years ago we were still waiting for Lady Bug’s autism assessment and panicking about our withdrawn, regressed 2 year old. A friend who was further down the autism road than us suggested a connecting exercise to gain her attention. She loved popcorn, even back then, so that is what we used. Daddy had the bowl and gave it to her one piece at a time. At this point she wasn’t distressed about the popcorn not being in her reach, nor was anything required of her to receive a piece.  He just was the one to hand it to her when she had finished the piece before.  His hand stayed out stretched available for when she wanted it.  After a while she started noticing the body attached to the hand holding the popcorn, and looked up at his face a few times. She even offered the words “big Daddy” at the end, according to the On This Day facebook post memory. We only did it a few different times, but the point was to give Daddy a chance to feel connected and noticed, as he didn’t have the same relationship with her as me who was home all day with her.