Grace reacted to clearing her room and dismantling her bed, desk and shelving, as though she'd been 'bombed out' in the Blitz. She found it tough as a Displaced Person. That's the ASD, I guess. Change, for her, is traumatic.
I know who wrote this but I'm not telling. Let's just say that at her age she should know better.
Jack and I moved all the furniture pieces and began painting three of her walls a light lilac colour. One is already a purple colour.
The Painting is complete. Grace cannot WAIT to get her stuff back in the room!
On Wednesday afternoon, we met with some friends for swimming in a great pool. I thought that having a treat in the middle of the Bad Week would soften things for her. It was relaxing.
The carpet has been fitted. We bought the most expensive underlay we could, for its sound-proofing and draught excluding properties. (Boy, how well it works too!) The carpet is 40% wool and is looped. I don't know the technical term for that. It is a neutral colour with little speckles, so every tiny thing won't show up on it.
Grace vacuums using the extremely LOUD Dyson. We really need ear-defenders while using that thing!
Starting to get her things back in. Jack was so brilliant, helping me to shift everything and re-assemble the whole lot. Tessie the cat needed to inspect every single empty box, just in case.
And here's she is surveying her domain. We need to buy her a new desk as the old one was a battered old office desk, far too large for her room. IKEA here we come.
She is so happy it's all done and no more disruption for a few years! She told me, 'I can relax now my room is back to normal.'
The things we take for granted, like being able to bear some disruption for a few days in order to have something much better afterwards is something Grace just finds sooo traumatic. When she was little we joked that 'Instant gratification isn't fast enough for Grace.' She has learned a lot about coping, but ASD is a lifelong condition and it is likely that, for HER, change, particularly disruption, will always be experienced as trauma.
It's over now and she's happy again.
And so are we.
~Live-Well-Laugh-Often-Love-Much-Posters.jpg)
9 comments:
The room is beautiful, Dorothy!
Looks great! She sure looks happy with it even though it was hard while waiting. Very nice colors!
I'm so sorry Grace had such a hard time with this, but I LOVE her new room! It looks so comfy & so "girly!" Purple is my favorite color so love the paint color too! :-)
Lisa in ME (SHS)
It looks great & WOW those walls are tall -- how high are your ceilings there? She looks dwarfed!
Glad that grace is happy now. I have two children: Jamin and Zander who have the same reactions to change.
Her room is gorgeous. It turned out well.
Wow, the purple is lovely. It's a blessing for Grace that you realize she has a tough time making this adjustment, and instead of wondering WHY she's like this, you can help her through it.
Grace's room turned out so nice! Glad to hear she made it through the disruption and likes the results.
The only thing Trevor's accident made easier was re-doing his room. We probably would have kept leaving it otherwise. The new floorboards did not get put down before we moved him back in though and he does not want to sleep elsewhere for even one night so that they can be laid down. I guess he will have to live with the plywood sub flooring for ever!
Anyway...you did a great job with this project!
Dorothy, the room turned out perfect! How lovely it looks! Great job on transforming her room.
Our dd, Emily, has a REALLY HARD time with change. Not to the degree you describe, but difficult still. She has grown out of a lot of it now, but she still has her moments. We are in the middle of rearranging, remodelings, or redeocrating several rooms in our house and that's tough on someone who doesn't like change.
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