Influence

Puppy had a pretty good day yesterday. His teacher sends me daily communication and noted he was focused and participated in P.E. today without complaints.

After school he is taken by the school bus to a daycare/learning center. There he mostly plays, colors, watches videos, but only because he's already had a full day of schoolwork, and we do homework together at home in the evenings.

Puppy's progress report at daycare was not so good. The director mentioned he was in deep thought several times and sat alone. When she'd try to get his attention, he'd make noises or grunts and wave his hand at her to leave him alone.

When I picked him up from daycare and we were on our way home, I asked what was bothering him. It took a while but he finally told me he had been thinking about a former classmate whom he saw at a field trip just this week. This wouldn't normally be anything of an issue, except that this particular classmate was probably the worst influential Puppy has ever met.

How can this be? Well, this boy also has autism and unfortunately is part of a dysfunctional family with no dad, mom is bi-polar, sister is a trouble-maker, and grandma holds them together as best she can. Living this rough life, the little boy has learned many behaviors and words that are unfavorable, and you guessed it...now Puppy knows those same words and behaviors. But Puppy also knows it's wrong to use foul language or flip the bird even though he has no idea what he's saying and is using the wrong finger. Puppy's good day turned sad when he felt the need to mumble some curse words at the children in daycare, but luckily the mumbled words went unnoticed, except to himself.

Yep, Puppy is easily influenced and everything he says and does is learned, nothing is instinct to him. I wish I could learn how to remove and replace all the bad with only good. Any suggestions?

To end the day's story, we talked about his behavior and copying others. We had a delicious supper and sent him off to bed feeling better about himself.