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‘Mum gave me a set of your question cards to have a go for the purpose of testing them out and giving her any feedback to pass on to you. I had a go of them both with my husband and my son and must say, I really enjoyed them!
With my husband, I held the cards and chose the questions which he would answer and then I would also answer the same question. It was nice, lighthearted fun! It was entertaining, interesting and even funny at times. Overall we enjoyed having a little moment of being still and paying each other attention and not having our heads buried in screens or distracted with other things.
I then played with my son. He's 8 years old and diagnosed on the Autistic Spectrum. Alex has very good speech and vocabulary, but his language is often a bit confused, muddled, stilted and is generally largely focussed on his own agenda. One of our greatest challenges with Alex is making meaningful connection through language and conversation. He seldom shares stories with us without vast amounts of prompting and almost never has any interest or inquiry about myself or his dad. I'm very pleased to be able to tell you that using your Question cards was able to change that - at least for the time while we were playing! And I think that he may improve over time if we were to play more regularly.
Alex and I played differently to when I played with my husband. I gave Alex half the deck and kept half for myself. We then took turns in asking each other questions and actively listening to each other's responses. Cedar, this was the first time that I can remember that Alex actually, truly engaged with me and for the entire time we played, he was interested.... not just in answering his own questions, but in asking questions of me and truly listening to what I had to say with focus and interest. We also often don't get to outwardly see Alex’s true nature. I know he has a very gentle, caring, compassionate soul because I can feel it, but we don't very often get to tangibly see his nature play out in day to day life because he generally only displays a very one-dimensional side of himself which is one that is very absorbed with self. However, while we played and talked, I could see with the way he was answering that it gave me a real insight into his true nature and how he feels in his heart. It was magic! It was truly something beautiful and made my heart sing to see this different, gorgeous side of my boy. It was a little glimmer of hope in what sometimes feels like a sea of uncertainty. I did have to adapt some of the wording of the questions, and there were some that were not suitable to his age, but there were even some partially complex questions which he answered quite well, so it was good to extend him a little. I have told mum, and I'll pass on to you, that if you were so inclined, you could make a supplemental deck that was more geared toward children/young adolescents. I think you may have a good response from the autistic community. I certainly found it so valuable and we would certainly support it!
So, hopefully, that's helpful to you in some way. I would really like to purchase a set for myself, so if you could please let me know the best way to do that, I'd appreciate it! Have a wonderful day! ‘
Warm Regards,
Shelley
Special Education Teacher
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