The airport is one of Rayyan's favourite haunts. He loves running around the huge terminals and boy, he sure can run!! We definitely have a difficult time running after him because whenever he's there, he will get excited and he will run and run, without a care in the world, ignoring our repeated calls (another autism trait).
I remember last week, we were at T2, waiting for the skytrain to take us to T3. Our helper was with us and while we were busy reading something, he ran straight for the carriage heading to T1. My helper got a shock of her life because she was not fast enough to stop him and luckily the doors did not close on him or after him!
Anyway, we sometimes use the airport as our 'training ground'. We will let him roam at the terminals and since there's a huge running space and we do not have to worry about him getting lost as we have a good view of him, we will just take a leisurely walk and if he runs, we will call out for him and get him to come back to us. He is beginning to follow our instructions and as time goes by, I hope he will be more compliant. We also take the opportunity of the huge space to bond with him by racing with him or 'galloping' with him, something he loves to do.
Here's the Daddy galloping with him..
And last week, after the skytrain scare, we brought Rayyan to a little playground which was temporarily set up at T3. The little playground was packed with kids and I was pleasantly surprised that he wanted to play there. He climbed up the ladder and waited for his turn to go down the slide. No doubt, he did not communicate nor play with the other kids around him but at least he wanted to play there, something that he sometimes avoid at all costs.
So really, at the end of the day, nothing beats seeing the huge smile on your child's face or hearing his happy laughter :)
