Controlling Spencer's Body

I don't know if Amy will get a chance to post this before we forget so I (Michael) will, although this is secondhand for me. As many of you have witnessed, Spencer gets restless/mad/wants attention and pushes/hits/kicks/head butts the nearest person. Amy got after him about that in one instance and he said, "It wasn't me - it was my bones!" Which prompted a discussion about how he is responsible for controlling his own body. So another day I heard the usual yelling about Spencer hitting someone and then Emma's encouraging voice: "Control your body, Spencer, you can do it."

So that's the new catch-phrase: Control your body. And he talks about being a good boy and controlling his body.

Then one morning he was having a hard time holding back so he came upstairs and painted a picture of a humpback whale. He said, "When I'm having a hard time controlling my body, I do an art project."

So now when I get home from work I see all kinds of makeshift origami, water color masterpieces, and drawings of "mouses." And he got some special markers at a scrapbook wholesale clearance (it helps to have two scrapbook marketers in the family/friend sphere), which was good for another day of healthy alternatives to hitting.

Then at Costco, Amy said, he was frustrated about something and restless and said to himself, "I need to do an art project!" We hope he continues to be this self-aware as he grows and that he can continue to come up with interventions for himself.