AutismWeb Forum

Okay, this part of the forum is kind of slow lately and I want know how everyone's kid is doing!
We've been working on nonverbal communication with S.. It's interesting to say the least. It involves a lot of people watching, taking pictures of him making different faces, and me role playing and asking questions.

Over the last week, he's made some breakthroughs. First, I asked him if he wanted chicken soup for lunch and he made a disgusted noise, crossed his arms and rolled his eyes at me!

I asked him if he knew where the head phones were and when he didn't answer, I looked over to see him making the universal 'I don't know' shrug and face.

He was watching Scooby Doo movie and he paused the movie and asked, "Why are is Daphne touching Fred's shoulder?" I asked what he thought and he said, "Maybe, she wants his attention? Or she likes him and make him feel better?"

Lately, when he wins a video game or finishes a book, he pumps his hand the air and says, "Yay!"

My son is trying to read (he's . He is bringing me books and taking my hand to prompt me to point at each word so he can learn. It's so awesome that he is initiating this on his own. He's also trying to comunicate and socialize more. I am seeing the "typical kid" coming out from behind the autism. They're still in there, even when it doesn't seem like it.

We're getting longer sentences. She's using people's names when she makes a request of them. Before she would just make the request, and you wouldn't know who the intended recipient of the message was.

She had an awesome time at a preschool field trip to a pumpkin patch. I was so afraid she wouldn't be cooperative during the 3 hour visit but the teacher said the visit went very well.

We've been toilet training my 4 1/2 year old boy for 4 months now, after a lot of accidents
and constant bringing him to the toilet,he just got up one day after his nap and went
to the bathroom on his own. This is a huge accomplishment, I thought it was never
going to happen, but it did. I am just hoping the same happens with his speech, because
I am slowly dying inside, I need my son to talk to me. Please pray that my son talks to me.

angel

DS is doing better and better at school. He has two other kids he's actually spoken to and called by name! He calls all the teachers, aides, and therapists by name now, and greetings are usually spontaneous now. He's still got a huge lag in receptive language, but his expressive is really coming along. He's also started actually participating in group activities, which is huge. A year ago he was so freaked out by group that I had to stay with him for weeks so he could sit in my lap and at least be present for it.

He's been much more OCD lately (lining things up, weird little rituals) but also much more engaged - we play board games every day now, and he reads me his books. I peeked in his room earlier when he was playing on his own, which is usually just stimming or lining things up, and he was running a toy car around the room making vroom, vroom and beep, beep noises! Right now, he's cooking cupcakes and coffee on his little kitchen - love it!

Absolutely zero progress on potty training. Nothing. Nada. He just doesn't see the point, and the look he gives me when I suggest that he poop in the potty is hilarious. He's just outraged at the thought! I thought it was going to be easy when he suddenly started asking to peepee in the potty several times a day, but we've been at a total standstill ever since.

My son came home with another kid's phone number. He made a new friend with no prompting or interference from me!

We started the GFCF diet in August even before we went to the DAN doctor. We're six weeks into the shots. My son, who has never in his life asked a "why" question, has asked me "why" twice in the last 3 weeks. My son who never engaged in imaginative play, won't stop wearing his Spiderman costume, playing with his Lightning McQueen car in the living room and pretending his dinasours are fighting during bath time. My son whose speech therapist said at our last meeting that she had reviewed her records from the beginning when he was averaging about 2 words a sentence is now averaging about 6-7 words. His parapro said that he was so much fun to work with this year as he is developing quite a sense of humor. When my son was in kindergarten last year he had no specific educational goals. Our only goal for him was to keep him in the building. He wouldn't stop trying to leave. He would run out at every opportunity. This same little boy sits on the carpet to do calendar with his classmates, participates in gym, goes to music, uses a visual schedule and a token system and participates in all the same activities as his classmates. I cried everyday in Sept. & Oct. last year and this year the "Wall of Greatness" in our house is adorned with art projects my son has completed.

If you're reading this and I sound like YOU....don't give up hope. You can't get tired or weak. Keep pushing. Keep plugging away. My son was "in there" the whole time and I knew it but I didn't know how to bring him out. I learned. There is hope. If it can happen for us, it can happen for others too. I have so much hope for my son and hope is a powerful motivator. Always, always, have hope.

nice post.....lots to say.

I've been very proud of Dee lately. She's been in 5th grade for about 1 1/2 months so far and passing ALL of her general education classes. (although I know this is temporary, don't burst my bubble:) She raised her hand in school to be on the morning announcements. They let her read the lunch menu. I wasn't there to see it, so don't know if there was any stimming going on, but there probably was because she was so excited!

The other night she did an awesome flip turn at swim practice, and tonight we played Go Fish. She initiated it and understood how to play it without me telling her what to do. This is huge! She told me to not go into the locker room with her because she could do it herself. She's taking computers in school, and the other night she wrote ILOVEYOUMOM on the computer and called me into the room. I then taught her how to use the spacebar. Ya know, to parents of typical 5th graders, just writing I love you wouldn't be a big deal. Dee can't write paragraphs yet; she just isn't there, just simple sentences but that excites me because I thought she'd never talk to me when she was little, and now she's typing to me.

She's able to make her own lunch which consists of a 1/2 peanut butter sandwich with some cheezits and a chewy bar. She's learned how to take showers by herself (well, I get the water temp. perfect). She's taking viola in school.

Like I said, I know the doing ok in school thing is temporary, but right now we're still ok. She's gaining in every way, and like we've all said, we see it in inches, not leaps, and that's ok.

We still have such a long way to go, but as Dory said on Finding Nemo....we "just keep swimming"

Dee's mom

Something happened today that hasn't happened before. I saw five-year-old DS walking toward me in the livingroom with a little shake 'n go car in one hand and a screwdriver (!) in the other. I trotted over to him to say okay, maybe we'd better not play with the screwdriver but he held it out to me with the car and said in his halting way, "Can I have a help please?" I blinked a few times, the awkward little sentence was familiar but never with these objects so I wasn't sure what he needed but I desperately wanted to understand him. I noticed the battery cover was off the car (we're always stealing batteries for one toy or another, this toy didn't have any right now) and went into the kitchen to get it and turned around and DS was right behind me. Hand-over-hand I helped him with the tiny bit of metal and the screwdriver and together we put the battery cover back on. So I'm not very bright, right? Because DS took the car from me and shook it and of course the engines won't rev as expected, because there's no batteries in the car, and he handed it back to me and said, "help". I had thought DS was experimenting with the screwdriver, and figured he'd seen me take the cover off before -- also, whatdoyouknow, he somehow knew where the little hand tools are kept, I'll have to change that tonight -- but that wasn't it, he'd deduced that to make the car "go" again you have to get the screwdriver, because he'd seen me do it. I was so happy that I swiped the batteries from the tv's remote control and popped them in the car. We screwed the battery cover back on again and he shook that car and looked satisfied and just walked off with it, leaving me with the screwdriver in my hand and tears in my eyes. Made me so happy.

Thank you for posting! I tried to explain the significance of what happened today, but no one IRL gets it.
I overslept this morning and we had to be at a homeschooling activity at 9am. S. had breakfast, but I didn't. I stopped to get myself coffee and i grabbed a yogurt. I asked the guy at the counter, if they had any spoons? He said, "Over by the muffins." A minute later, S. says, "Mom, I can't find the spoons, where did he say they were?" The guy repeated himself and S. asked, "By the store muffins or the english muffins?" He then brought me a spoon.
Okay
1. He followed the conversation
2. He anticipated I would need a spoon
3. He went to get a spoon without being asked
4. He asked for more information
5. He understood there are many kinds of muffins
6. He brought me a spoon

Maybe, not a huge deal to most people, but think of the motor planning, social skills, speech, empathy, nonverbal cues and joint attention that went into that interaction!

This morning my daughter got up before me. She was in our bedroom on the bed by about 5:30 a.m. I leave a small box of books and toys near our bed so that if she wakes up before we do, she has something to amuse herself with. I was happily sleeping when I heard a small noise like something falling down. I heard her say "what happened?!" then I could tell from her voice she was ready to cry. So I asked her to use her words and explain what happened. "I dropped it." I said "What did you drop?" She replied, "The picture." I realized she had dropped a family picture that had been sitting on my dresser. I pulled it out from the space between the bed and the wall. In the past, she would have cried quite a bit. She wouldn't have told us what was wrong.

Second thing to share - I spoke with her dentist yesterday. We're due for a cleaning. Without me asking or saying anything, he said that he noticed she's much better at the dental visits than in the past. He said the fussing she still does is within the range of normal for a 4 year old. He didn't think it was anything out of the ordinary. Hooray!
We have a dental visit next week. I am actually looking forward to it. My daughter's favorite book to read for the past month has been a book about a child's visit to her dentist. At her request, we read this book about 3-5 times a day. She has it memorized now. It's going to be interesting to see if the social story will make a difference in the bit of fussing that she still does at the dentist.

My boy is getting better and better at going to the toilet on his own. I am so proud of him.
He also learnt how to flush the toilet.
He is picking up how to blow. He blew into a flute and a whistle. This is something I have
tried so hard for him to do a year ago and he couldn't do it. Today, he finally did it.
He also brought me a picture off of the fridge door and brought it to me into the living room.
I was so shocked that he did that.
Lastly, he made new sounds.. Mommie, Ma....

Oh god, please give him his speach.

angel

Connor:

Mommy.....Ma is the BEST word in the whole world!

Dee's mom

Joe is now using the toilet during the day
William uses it at school but not home

This is all due to the hard work by their school teachers and aides.

WD

First I went looking back in my email as I keep all the ATEC scores in there and my son's has gone down 19 points in 2 years. He is trying to talk he can now say words but communication is a bit harder for him. IE functional speech. He does use a few words functionally and that is a long way from a child I could not put down and clawed me if anyone came close to him as if he wanted to climb into my skin to get away from them. He is extreamly loving and he even has empathy. Of all things it is so cute to see. If he bumps into you he wil turn back around and softly touch the spot he bumped to check and see if you are ok. I have finally gotten into a real Dr like all the ones I have heard you all talk about but could not find or afford. This one takes both of my INS. it cost me nothing and he is running almost every dang blood test that was on the page. We will be getting an MRI and an EEG. I am not a jealous person but I have always wanted to be able to see the kinds of Dr.s you all could afford. I am truely excited. He does well with his classmates and they are kind to him. I am extreamly blessed. Not to sound like a downer but I will never rest until my son is back. I miss him so much. He was 3 when he disappeared totally so I know who is stuck in there. To be honest he is a bit of a brat and very well self contained. He was always a leader. He will come back to us. I will spend my last monent on earth making sure.

Well, last night of course was Halloween. An event I have always loved. My son had been talking about Halloween, pumpkins and saying trick or treat all week long. I don't believe he understands what it is but he had been talking about it anyhow. Well, my husband took my son and my nt daughter out. I was worried about my son. I thought he would be scared and would come right back home. My daughter went to 2 houses, got scared and came home crying and stayed with me the rest of the night. My son went trick or treating for 2 hours! Rang doorbells, said Happy Halloween and trick or treat! Said thank you at every single house!!!!!!!!!!! Said hi to kids in the neighborhood. Went up to the fire truck that came around delivering candy and loved it. When he got home he even helped me hand out candy. It was a wonderful night. He was excited about all of the candy he got - although he doesn't even eat it. His receptive langauge is SLOWLY getting better - but it is getting better.
Hope everyone is doing well!!!!!

My son blew his first bubble today from those bottles with the bubble wand. I was so happy.
I had tried so many times and could never get him to do it. Well today was the day.
He also blew out a candle, so I know now when it is his birthday he will be able to blow
out his candle.

angel

J. had a great day at preschool. As I dropped her off at her class, the teacher's assistant greeted her, "Hi J." to which she replied back "Hi Miss Christina". During the day J. held hands with a NT girl in the class , and they played together......for an hour!

S. made a new best friend. The boy has taken him under his wing
and they adore each other. I'm just so happy for him.

S. went to a homeschooling class with several older kids (2 or 3 years older) and he sat still
for the hour long class. He was the only kid able to answer some
of the questions and it wasn't a subject he's terribly interested in.