The Great Button Discovery

Gusi goes through these phases where he practices a skill over and over again to achieve near perfection in that activity. Right now it's pointing and pushing buttons. He's obsessed. Doorbells, telephones, keyboards--anything that can be pushed he'll find it if he's in a 10 foot radius. I do provide him with lots of positive feedback and encouragement when he successfully turns something on or off as well as provide encouragement and help when he gets "stuck". I hope this also contributes to his learning.

Yesterday, he started putting 2 + 2 together. He made his way to the living room where he got a hold of our remote controls. I thought he would push the buttons to see the little lights blink and would eventually move on. I was wrong. He realized that when he pushed the green button on one of the remotes, something incredible happened--voices came from the other side of the room and eventually an image on a silver box. He was mesmerized. He pushed it again and it all went away. Amazing. He did it again. And again. And again. And again. It wasn't the TV that impressed him, it was the power he had over it. Just to test his theory he pushed another button. Nothing. He went back to the original green button and his face lit up. He looked at me as if to say, "Did you see what I just did?"

When he eventually tired he left the remotes on the sofa and crawled over to the TV itself. There he found the remote control's counter part: the on/off button on the TV. It was just too much for him to handle...two great discoveries in one day. He spent the next 20 minutes going back and forth from the TV on/off button to the remote control one (still on the sofa). I thought about putting the remote right next to the TV so he wouldn't have to crawl but I decided against that; all that crawling would tire him out paving the way for a good nap. Which it did.

I wonder when he'll move on to the great discovery of washing dishes. That will not only get applause from me, but also a standing ovation.