Anyhow, I wanted to briefly write an update on a few notable developments that we've seen in Elias in the past month and a half or so:
- Saturday (10/10) he said to Caroline who was sitting with him on the couch "Caroline, off." And she got up and he laid his head down where she was sitting. *functional communication
- Yesterday he finished his lunch that I had made for him and was standing on the stool and pointing to the cabinet and said "Pretzel Sandwich." without me prompting him other than saying "What do you want?" Chris had been working with him the day before to get him to say pretzel sandwiches during his snack and he remembered it.
- Last week I gave him a grape popsicle and after I unwrapped it he said "Black." What is notable is not that he said the wrong color; rather it's that he verbally commented on it at all. I'm pretty sure he's been thinking all of these words in his head before, but they have just never come out. The fact that he's commenting on something is fabulous. I corrected him and said "purple" and he said "Purple popsicle." *descriptive communication
- Potty training has significantly regressed in the past few weeks. This is a very frustrating development for me. He was never close to being potty-trained, but we were moving in the right direction. But I read something by an autistic man who said that the idea of "regression" for autistic people is misleading because often autistic brains find it difficult to be working on many things at the same time. So what appears to be "regression" to neurotypicals may just be "not working on that now" in an autistic brain. I think we're going to take a break and pick it up later. I did notice that when he was making potty progress, he wasn't talking very much.
- He is eating CHICKEN nuggets. We have not been able to get this child to ever get him to eat chicken, even when he was just starting solid food. He's also the child who only eats bacon and hot dogs for protein. He will eat peanut butter and sometimes nuts but that's it. So the fact that he's eating chicken nuggets, while not a health food, it means that he's trying new foods and new textures and that's a GOOD thing. *sensory
- He used to immediately reject any new shoes that we would buy for him. We'd get him the shoes and he'd see them and push them away. One pair of shoes his toe was sticking out of them but we could not get him to try on new ones until we finally put the old shoes away and made him put the new ones on. I just bought him a pair this week and he put them on and started running out into the backyard. *sensory
- Today (10/14) he said to me "Stop pushing me." when I was trying to help him get his shoes on. He often takes his shoes off right by the front door and he was trying to put them on himself. I moved him away from the door so I could help him and that's when he said it. At least that's what I think he said. It was the right context and he nodded when I asked him if that's what he said. *communicating feelings
There's just something different about him. He's more aware, more engaged in general. We've been working on "I want" statements for a long time and it's been like pulling teeth. Now, the "I want" statements are coming much easier and more quickly. I could (and mostly likely will) wax poetic about how much I love his preschool, but I will save that for another post. I am sure you are all sick of me singing their praises but I really am so grateful that Elias is able to go there.I told Chris last night that we were moving forward before, but it was at a very slow rate. He was getting 1 hour and 15 minutes of therapy PER WEEK prior to this fall. And now he's getting about 21 hours per week. It is making a difference.
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