It’s catching!! A severe case of ‘Fake Cough Disease’ is running rampant thru my house these days. What is this mysterious contagious illness and why am I happy my kids have come down with it??
It’s probably something most parents deal with daily, faking for attention. So, you ask, why am I happy my kids have developed a condition that has me asking ‘Are you okay?’ all day? Simple answer, autism.
No, I’m not blaming autism for anything…but my kids have never shown a whole lot of interest in how their brothers were doing, and lately anytime someone gets a little too much water in the pool, or the Kool-aid goes down the wrong way, I have a whole army of coughing kiddos not just one. Everyone waiting to told ‘You’re okay, you’re doing awesome’. Then, they flash you that huge smile and go about their shenenegins.
It’s a huge development. To most parents it’s just a copying a sibling, to me it’s imitation, something we’ve been working on for years in therapy. Why is it so important to me, because without imitation teaching can be rather difficult.
Example- Imagine trying to teach someone to tie their shoes when they won’t even imitate picking up the shoe lace. Try teaching you child Itsy Bitsy Spider, when instead of coping the hand motions they just stare and you like you’re a ding dong. In some situations hand over hand can only go so far. I realize theres more to teaching than imitation, however, I feel, it does play a role in many aspects of learning.
So, I welcome the highly contagious ‘Fake Cough Disease’ into my home, and with that say YAY to learning, wether it’s thru hours of drills at the therapy table, or the simple act of copying your brother to get extra attention.
~~And if the ‘Fake Cough Disease’ gets too serious I’m sure just bringing out a bottle of cough syrup would clear it up for everyone;)
–> *Disclaimer–None of products listed above are actually for the treatment or cure of ‘Fake Cough Disease’, nor do the manufacturers recommend their products for this usage- only actually use medicine under the supervision of a medical professional 😉
LivinLife123 