Tuesday, November 03, 2009

Bathroom Humor

Enough introspection! Back to real life. Despite the title of this entry, I promise not to regress into a twelve year old boy. But George's aide told me a story I just have to share.

The toilets and urinals at my children's' school have automated flushing devices. Lovely for keeping the germ sharing to a minimum. Not so fun for little Kindergartners with sensory issues who find loud noises frightening. To take care of this, George's teachers taught him at the beginning of the school year to ask for a sticky note whenever he needs to use the bathroom. He places it over the sensor until he's done, at which point he yanks it off and dashes to the other end of the bathroom. Works like a charm. (Except when it falls, mid... well, you know, but that's not part of this story.)

Anyway, for a portion of his day, George has a different aide, one new to this school. The other day, while with this aide, George needed a bathroom break. He asked his aide for a sticky.

[Important information: George has been talking in sentences for less than a year. His language is more limited than the average Kindergartner and he can sometimes be hard to understand, especially when you're not sure of the context.]

Now his aide understood George's request to use the bathroom. He was ready to take him there, but George wouldn't leave the classroom. He asked for his sticky.

His aide heard,"Stinky."

Granted, also a word occasionally used in conjunction with bathrooms.

"I need Sticky." "Stinky?" "Sticky!" "Stinky???" "I need STICKY!"

Poor guy couldn't figure out why they were having this conversation and not progressing down the hallway to take care of things!

Luckily for George, someone else finally stepped in, and his aide learned a new routine.

Dude, sometimes a sticky really is just a sticky. Three cheers for speech therapy!

12 comments:

Heather said...

I am sure it was anything but funny for him at the time but thankfully someone stepped in & helped out. What another wonderful use for stickies. Will their uses never cease? :)

Laski said...

You know, my little guy is in speech therapy right now. He walked around during his last session saying "sucks, sucks, sucks". I shrugged. I certainly wasn't trying to teach him sucks (though I say-spell it on rare occasions--oops?)

Come to find out he is either saying ducks, but replacing the d with an s OR he is saying DOC and SALLY together since he has an obsession with CARS the movie (and carries around miniature versions of DOC, SALLY, MATER, and of course, McQueen in his tiny little hands ALL THE TIME.

Then again, he really could just be saying SUCKS. Figures . . .

loonyhiker said...

Don and I really enjoyed this story! It made a great breakfast conversation! :)

Beverly said...

oh Meg, what a priceless story and I was well prepared with your opening since I have 17, 21 and 46 year olds in this house that are all about bathroom humor @@ I love the teacher's resourcefulness with the stinky and can picture the poor aide standing there totally perplexed.

Anonymous said...

LOL, oh I needed the laugh today! Poor George ... it reminds me of Liam though ... saying something and then we have a lgihtbulg moment ..."OOOHHH, so that is what he is saying!!!" I just tell Liam he has to be patient with Mom and Dad - we are sllllooooowwwww sometimes to understanding his language, hee hee.
But, like Laski said, sometimes it is just SUCKS.

Sasha said...

omgoodness giggle .. love the post .. and your pages are fab

pixiemama said...

Oh, I SO hear you on the obnoxious self-flushers that make thunderous noises!

Anonymous said...

Hi Meg - I love your story. I work with children like your son and love the things they say and do.

Tanya @ TeenAutism said...

The auto-flushing toilets were a complete nightmare for Nigel at that age. I'll never forget the shrieking. Glad for George's sake that there was someone else around to explain the process to the new aide!

Sian said...

So glad it all worked out in the end! I really enjoyed this story.

Carrie/scrapchick said...

Aw, cute story. Glad someone helped him out!

Unknown said...

I just can imagine how frustrated he was (my daughter is in speech therapy, so I know) But... it is a funny story :) Thanks for sharing!