Autism. Introducing... the dancer

Here's Emilia from Dance Central running through the Maneater routine.

We have an XBox game called Dance Central, where you can learn routines to pop songs and dance along in front of the telly. It's pretty cool.

We bought it for our big girl for Christmas, but the boys, including Bright Eyes have really taken to it as well. In fact, Bright Eyes has been learning quite a few routines, and getting pretty good at it.

I was happy for him to be learning coordination and practicing something until he became good at it, and then, as is the wont of his little brain, he started to make it his 'thing'. Now we often find him quietly running through a routine (his particular fave is Maneater by Nellie Furtado - make of that what you will) by himself. I think it is a new form of script for him. 

He spent two days with grandparents last week, and they encouraged him to talk less, which is a good thing, and was probably a sanity saver for them. It has lasted - for the last three days, scripty chat has been much, much less. But he still needs a script to run through his head, and dance moves have become his new internal recording loop.

It frustrates me that the scripting just can't be 'turned off'' totally, but I'm so glad that he's talking less. I guess I can put up with a few rounds of Maneater moves if what's coming out of his mouth is more on target.