Raiyan Social Update

Okay enough of all these deep shcmaltz I’ve been composing of late and high time we start talking about pweshes Raiyan again! Sorry to have not updated on his progress specifically in so long. I had actually planned to do a 2008 round up which basically summarizes all of his achievements month by month all the way from when he started ABA in January 2008. As you can imagine, this takes up a lot of work as I had to go through his thick programme file week per week. It is worth the effort nevertheless because it reminds me of how he was before (how easy one forgets!) and it is just amazing how far he has come. I am happy to report that I’m already up to October so expect to see that post up very soon!

Anyway, I did want to share something Jo told me yesterday that I’m beginning to be more convinced of as opposed to before- Raiyan actually having genuine “typical” friends that not only he seeks to play with but seeks to play with him too! All this time, I guess I really underestimated both Raiyan and “typical” 5 year old children because I just keep thinking of how others would not being able to accept the “difference” in him- I mean how could other people not find him ignoring them rude, or what about the fact that he strays off into his own topic conversation unilaterally without being attuned to his audience..

It’s not like I thought he will never have friends, I just didn’t think he was at THAT stage just yet because I know it’s still difficult for him to tune in to someone talking to him and to stick to one conversation at hand. At the same time, I wasn’t all that concerned and it wasn’t really something I deeply craved for as he was building friendships with his Learning Ladders buddies anyway, like Adek, Fadhil, Danial, Raiyyan Iman, Harris, Hakeemi, Sarah etc.. The fact that he always talk about them comforts me with the thought that no matter what, he DOES have friends in them.

So that’s why I was just OVER THE MOON yesterday when Jo insisted (cause I was still pretty hard to convince!) that Raiyan has this one boy pal in another class (who incidentally was from his reception class last year) named Jian Rong who he looks out for every break time AND Jian Rong looks out for him too :D:D:D:D She didn’t tell me exactly what they do but the idea that the 2 of them loyally looks out for one another at every break time is just too much of an *uhuks* moment for me to handle!

So later on at dinner I asked him about his friend and of course the first people he always names are all his Learning Ladders friends. But when I kept asking about somebody else, he hesitated and didn’t know who I was talking about. So I clued in the fact that he is in year 1B and his name beginning with the letter “J”. He still didn’t quite get it until I said “Jian” and he let out the BIGGEST smile and squealed “OOOOHHH JIAN ROONGG- He’s not in 1B, he’s in 1I! YESS He's my friend..”. BLESS!!

So YES, he CONFIRMED that Jian Rong was his friend and they play chase together at breaktime and other games too. From then, it was easier for me to ask him who else are his friends as he already understands what angle I’m coming from. Before, I would ask him who are his friends in class/school and he JUST DID NOT get the concept of what I was talking about. But NOW that we’re talking about Jian Rong, he knew exactly what I was asking and it wasn’t too hard to get out of him 2 other friends that he likes to play with- Anna and Adam!!! (Who incidentally Jo also told me likes to play with Raiyan too!) Alhamdulillah!! Isn’t it great! PLUS Anna is BEAUTIFUL! (Girlfriend potential maybe? Hahaha astaghfirullah….)