Even his phone fell silent

Our eleven year old son with ASD is always on maximum volume. His whole being is set up to move about and make noise. He is constantly balancing his sensory system and it's just part of ADHD to move around constantly even on his meds. His diagnoses means he also has difficulty focussing, listening to instructions and remaining on task. But on Remembrance Sunday this year he once again was completely silent - and even put down his mobile phone.

Jane loves flowers and she has been very interested in full family participation in Poppy wearing this year. For us it was was going to also be a special day as it was a year ago that we got Poppy, our rescue dog. Hence her name.

Wearing the Poppy's in the run up to the day itself helped prepare our autistic son for what was going to happen. I'll be honest, I didn't have high hopes for it. He's managed to stay silent during the two minute silence before. Most of the time it's been to do with getting a reward though.

We'd had the Cenotaph on the TV, hoping that it would sink in slowly. Jane had written about and drawn a photo of her poppy which was nice. We were listening to Radio Five Live as it approached 11am on Sunday. They switched rather quickly from sports to the Cenotaph on the radio and we'd just handed out snacks. As my husband and I fell silent and got Jane to remove the sandwich from her mouth, I looked through to the living room to see where Anthony was - it looked like he was on the sofa, probably playing on his phone.

When I'd finished my tea, I went through to collect Anthony's plate and found him sitting not doing anything. He mouthed at me but I couldn't make out what he was saying?

'What?' I mouthed back.

He whispered 'Is it OK to talk again now?'

I smiled. 'Yes' I said as he quickly picked his phone back up.

Communication difficulties is just one of the traits of his ASD. His father explained the significance of the two minute silence to him using simple language to help him understand. However, it's difficult for Anthony to understand some concepts via just talking. This is why we do things like take Anthony to the Imperial War Museum, look at pictures in books and talk about things when we can. 

We recently went on a fantastic trip to Loch Long in Scotland. The lovely walks could get a bit muddy in places. We loved that Anthony was able to bring his learning to life by commenting on how this was nothing compared to if we'd been in the trenches. We've also explained about our family members who serve/d in the forces. These are more ways we can tie in what he knows to what Remembrance Sunday means.

Remembrance Day or Armistice Day, marks the day World War One ended, at 11am on the 11th day of the 11th month, back in 1918. I'm glad to report that full of Anthony was able to show his respect again by silence at school today, just as he did on Sunday.