Today's Assignment: Trying Not to Laugh.

This morning in class, I just couldn't help but laugh at one of my students. I know it sounds bad-but you would too. I have a little boy in my class that has autism and a southern accent, since he moved here from out of state. He's really a darling little guy and very well behaved...on most occassions! It's really sad because one moment he will be interacting with you and then the next minute the only thing he can do is repeat what you say...it's like you've lost him. However, lately instead of making me sad-it's been making me laugh hysterically.
I have a feeling he gets yelled at quite a bit at home, because whenever I have to talk "sternly" to another child, he will mimic me and sometimes say "I don't want to fight with you" or "Don't you yell at me"...and best of all he always does it with a finger pointed at you. Well the other day I had to put him in his place for once and told him to go sit in the "naughty" chair for a few moments and he got that finger out and started yelling at me in gibberish. I just had to turn and walk away, not showing him that I was laughing, because he didn't cognitively know what he was doing. Then today I had to sit him in the chair again, and I had to get really stern with him of course only triggering his finger-pointed yelling again. I guess he was really fired up by this point because while I had all of the children gathered around for storytime, another child kept talking and he screamed out "SHUT UPPPPPPPPP!" It was the most hillarious thing I've heard in a long time. All of the other kids looked stunned and one of the little boys gave me a smirk as he saw me turn away because I thought I might burst into laughter-and of course I can't let them think saying "shut up" is okay...but this poor little guy can't help his outbursts. Haha, I still laugh just thinking about it. Howard definitely enjoyed my impression at the dinner table.