When Peyton was young he had his own language and many times I didn’t know what he was telling me. At one point my third child seemed to be the only one who could understand him at times. I felt so bad that I wasn’t always able to understand what he was he was telling me. We relied on pointing or me guessing until he shook his head in approval. I know it frustrated him as well and I could tell at times when Preston was called into the room to “interpret” it hurt him, he saw the rest of us communicating and he wasn’t able to. I would repeat back to him what he had said hoping that it would improve his skill set. I had wished he could write down what he was feeling, wanting, thinking etc…. Since he couldn’t read I knew this wasn’t possible.
My solution to this was having him express himself thru drawing and coloring! He loved it. In fact he learned how to download pictures on the computer that he wanted to color, rather than just what I had picked for him. I decided to expand this idea and started buying stickers as well, thinking this was a good way for him to express some emotions he may not understand how to draw. While it worked, it also caused other issues! He decided the best way to “express” himself with crayons and stickers was to draw on the wall and to put the stickers everywhere and anywhere! I didn’t want to take this from him as I noticed he truly enjoyed having a creative way to connect. After many attempts to get him to stick to paper…I found a solution. I bought large poster boards and hung them on his walls in his room. I explained to him that this was a place that he could be happy, sad, angry or any other emotion he chose to feel. He took to the idea as he seemed to think it was not only his way of expressing himself with us, but he thought his room was “cool”. And it was HIS room. Each of his siblings had their personal items in their room and this seemed to open up to him, the idea of having things that were his! We would look at his “expression” board with him. As Peyton learned to talk and write he stopped expressing himself as much with stickers and coloring. However; even now he loves to draw and now is comfortable with writing. I think art is very important for Awesomism kids and helps them express themselves in ways they can’t always do verbally. To this day at times when he gets frustrated he will use creative ways to express his emotions. Having crayons, markers, stickers, drawing pads, colored pencils and books are still a staple at his desk!