Makaton Monday ~ Sorry

Sorry… Not a word I envisaged Bruiser using considering he doesn’t really ‘get’ the word or the meaning. I have though been showing Bruiser the sign for it and showing him how to use the word. I strongly believed that he would eventually ‘get’ it.

Bruiser is usually very unresponsive to people’s emotions, when his brother is upset or hurts himself he rarely notices. When we raise our voices to assert discipline, he doesn’t listen or respond to the change in our tone of voice. He usually carries on in his own little world. Even shouting doesn’t provoke crying or any emotional response from him. So when he has hurt his brother for what ever reason, i’ve been stopping him in his tracks and making him look at his brother to see that he hurts and telling him he hurt him and that he needs to say sorry.

Last week though he took us completely by surprise, he used ‘Sorry’… in context no less! He knocked his Daddy’s leg with his aeroplane when playing which caused his Daddy to say to say ouch. (it was quite a knock) He immediately turned, looked and said ‘wo-wee Dadee’ and went straight back to his aeroplane. He didn’t seem slightly concerned that he had hurt his Daddy. For me and his Daddy though, we looked at each other with sheer amazement on our faces at we had witnessed!

Even though he didn’t show any remorse for what he had done or even comfort his Daddy (not even a kiss better), he used the word in the correct context. This word along with other words like ‘very’ and ‘too’ which he has also started to use recently (very dark & too hot), show us that he has a much greater understanding of the English Language than we give him credit for.