Playing independently

I've always thought B was pretty good at playing. He can keep himself busy and plays appropriately with most toys most of the time. I have learned however (through all of his many evaluations) that he does not stick with toys and does not complete them. He tends to jet from one thing to the next - checking them out and then moving on. One of the very first objectives in his therapy was what they called compliant play. He was being taught how to play when given the directive. He fought it pretty hard. In the beginning, it was literally just putting ONE piece in a puzzle. We worked up from there. Along the way, the objective was altered to focus on "independent" play and the goal wasn't so much about complying with the demand but on his ability to play for longer periods of time on his own. We've used a variety of different toys and he's now up to a target of about 2 minutes of sustained independent play.

So tonight, hubby and I were attempting to have a short adult conversation when he came home from work (a feat not easily accomplished by most parents). B was playing alone in the basement. I'm guessing he had been down there about 15 or 20 minutes when I went to check on him. To my surprised delight, here's what I found:

I then watched him take each of the remaining puzzles off the shelf one at a time, remove all of the pieces and complete the puzzle. Fifteen - maybe 20 puzzles in total: I'd call that some pretty impressive independent play skills!