Spectrum Saturdays: A Breakthrough!

Most people are really excited with their little toddler looks up and says their first recognizable word. For our son Quinn that happened not long after he was a year old, and he started saying Mama, just for me. Right now, Quinn is 18 months and picking up new words here and there. He even sings.

Reagan and Ciaran didn't pick up language quite so quickly. Reagan wasn't badly delayed. Like many kids with Asperger's, he was a bit slower verbally, but not far behind at all, and ultimately picked up language quickly. Ciaran, however, has been much slower than his peers, and he works for every bit of his communication.

For the last two weeks Dominic has been working on Wednesdays. It's usually his day off, but he's been picking up hours. It's meant that I've had to take all of the kids with me to speech. As it turns out, the girls are really helpful! When our fantastic therapist (hey, it turns out she found this blog, and if she reads this, she has to know how awesome we think she is!) was working with him, she found out that while he often won't imitate us, he will imitate his sisters. So, we put them to work and I'm telling you, the child had a breakthrough.

In the past he's learned to say "I", "want", and a myriad of nouns. Putting those all together, however, he hasn't been too keen on. This week that changed. Now, he suddenly wants everything! He's got it! No more pointing, or looking, or whining and hoping we guess. Now it's "I want in.", "I want bed.", "I want pants.", "I want donut." and on and on and...on. Yeah, I know I won't like it in another month, but right now it's fantastic! What would be a small thing for one of my NT (neurotypical) kids is a huge leap for him and I'm so excited I could do cartwheels across the playroom floor! Though, since I'm a major clutz, I promise I won't.

This "brain disorder" may sometimes make my want to pull my hair out. But there are times like these where I think we'll beat it. And who knows, maybe we really will.