A really sweet thing happened today- my two year old son got his first yo-yo today. He has always loved it when daddy or his big brother throws and “yo-yo” was one of his first real words. He’s always yelling yo-yo loud and excited and he swings around an old Duncan butterfly trying to copy his daddy’s 1a.
Well today we were grocery shopping and we came across the clearance rack of dented cans and open soda packages etc. There on the bottom shelf was a Duncan Sportline basketball yo-yo. It was on clearance cause the package was ripped for two bucks. He grabbed it and I Boutros it and he played so hard with it and a huge smile split his face the whole time. It just makes me all warm and fuzzy and I wanted to share.
I don’t know really, lol. I just love it when I attract a crowd of people and they are like how do you do that? That was amazing! And they start calling me yoyo master and stuff like that when I’m doing like Rock the Baby, and then I do the modern day stuff, and give it my best, and they are just amazed.
My autistic Son and my Oldest Daughter (3 and 4 respectively) both begged me to get them a yoyo, So I went and got them each a Butterfly, when I brought them home and gave it to them the couldn’t stop smiling and saying yoyo!! Welp, needless to say if they see me yoyoing they both will run to their room and get their yoyo and come to me to help them put the string on right and rewind it a million times, though I don’t mind, they are so happy trying to be like daddy! My youngest (1 in January) boy plays with yoyos too, to some extent, whenever my response falls out and I am too lazy to re-RTV it I let him play with it and he just smacks it on stuff and claps yelling “Da Da DAAAA!!!” non-stop. All of those things make me smile, I mean I guess I never thought that anyone would want to be me so much, it makes me proud, I love my kids.
Whether we know it or not, our kids are watching us and learning (for better or worse). My two-year-old niece does like watching me throw (and wants to play with the yoyo herself), but my 8-yr-old son just uses his butterfly to demolish his Star Wars toys. He does have a Yomega Brain somewhere, maybe I can get him interested in throwing again at some point.
D4rk0n3… my 2 year old son is also autistic. Fairly high functioning but the state is really good about funding for therapy services. I’ve found that a yo-yo can be a calming thing for him in high-stimulation situations (like grocery shopping) and I always carry a looper with a short string for him to let drop down the string and watch spin and tug on it and the like. I don’t know if that’s something you can use for your boy or not cause all ASD is different- but I thought I’d share just in case. I also have two older neuro-typical kids (7 and 9) and a fourth due in June. Best of luck to you and yours on all counts.
My son is about to turn 4 and can’t yet speak in an understandable manner, much like a one year old babbles, only getting out a single syllable word most times. Boy can he throw a fit though :P. Thanks for the idea, we normally give him one of his toys that has wings on it, he loves things that fly and as such toys with wings seem to calm him down when he is having a rough time/day, however I am slowly getting him to understand the gravity pull, maybe once he gets that concept your tip might work :D. Nice to know you aren’t alone, eh? We are still working on the whole SSI Disability stuff, I swear if we go in there and they tell us that we make a miniscule $14 too much a month for any form of help I will snap… Meh, that is another story though. I like this thread, it makes me smile, and that doesn’t happen often.
I’m happy to see I’m not the only one. My oldest has assburgers syndrome and a yoyo helps out BIG TIME!!! The day he learned how to bind was a great day for him (and me too, it always feels good when I teach my boys something new). ;D
Hey xminus… big fan of your mods and your taste in throws I think we may be on to something here guys. I am start teaching karate at Milestones which is a huge service and school system devoted to helping families with autistic and PDD children here in the northeast. I am gonna run the yo-yo thing by them. I have been toying (no pun intended) with using the yo-yo in karate related games. I have already successfully integrated both hacky sacks (footbags) and Frisbees. Please pm me with anything you guys (or anyone else with an autistic kids) that you have used/learned to help- especially yo-yo related. This could be good! I will do anything to help my kids and try to help others too.
I’ve done some yoyo demonstrations at the middle-school where my Mom works. I go in there and show kids how yoyoing has progressed. One kid, didn’t stop talking about yoyos for months. The school where my mom works has a lot of low income children, this particular one being of that group. My mom and I talked and we got him a Peterfish Luminator. He was enamoured.
I really don’t know what happened after that because the kid moved. But when i think about it, it really makes me happy knowing that the yoyo made him that happy.
When I learned about and got the yyj journey and swapped it out for my duncan speed beetle. I nearly cried as I learned I wouldn’t have to struggle just to do trapeze any more…
I also get a warm sense of nostalgia when I watch Andres tutorials with a friend of mine who is learning. It’s like “Wow, I took his word as law back in the day”. can’t really explain it, but I just smile when I watch his videos.
He does have a Yomega Brain somewhere, maybe I can get him interested in throwing again at some point.
I think we may be on to something here guys. I am start teaching karate at Milestones which is a huge service and school system devoted to helping families with autistic and PDD children here in the northeast. I am gonna run the yo-yo thing by them. I have been toying (no pun intended) with using the yo-yo in karate related games. I have already successfully integrated both hacky sacks (footbags) and Frisbees. Please pm me with anything you guys (or anyone else with an autistic kids) that you have used/learned to help- especially yo-yo related. This could be good! I will do anything to help my kids and try to help others too.