Every year when the weather warms up, Kyson and I go on our evening walks. It’s so routine. As his therapist leaves after each ABA sessions,

“Go for a walk?” Kyson ask.

Kicking

However this season he has been more than usually obsessed with kicking everything in his path. Sand, rocks, a pile of shrubs, water puddles, even a pile of dry grass from yesterday’s cut lawn. Our 30-minute walks have extended to an hour since he has to kick everything!

Walks are so slow that we haven’t really been able to get rid of that extra energy he has stored in him every day. Which means there will not be an early bedtime. I need to get his sleep schedule back before school starts.

Talking

I’ve tried the constant reminders and trying to transition him out of kicking everything. I’ve held his hand to keep him at pace, but he doesn’t tolerate the “holding” very well. We have even had the “talk” prior to our walks. Which went like this,

“Kyson, we are going for a walk. We are walking. When we go for walks, we walk.”

Not sure if he really understands, but I have to try some form of communication with him. Even if he doesn’t, at least he hears me talking to him with direct eye-contact. Our walks aren’t only for him, but it’s a time for me to get my heart rate up a bit too. I don’t get much time for work-outs (I know, probably a bit selfish of me to think) so the walks are also a benefit to me.

Trying

One day I decided to put him in his wagon and go for our walks again. Kyson was not having it. He cried and shouted and wanted out. I was on a mission to take him on this walk with me with his wagon. He’s a heavy child and I thought I would be able to pull him the entire time. Halfway through, I gave up. My arm gave out on me LOL.

I asked him if he wanted to get out and pull. He happily obliged. Kyson took the wagon and pulled it all the way back home.

The next day when we went for the walk, Kyson runs and grabs his wagon. He pulls it along. He leads the entire walk and just like that, no more kicking. I should’ve seen this yesterday when he walked it back home. He was on a mission to pull the wagon all by himself.

Walking

For the last few days, our walks now include his wagon and he still makes stops to look at certain spots along the way but now he has a reason to keep going. Our walks are back at pace and when we get home, we just sit on our patio “just kicking it.”

-Anna MV