Friday, August 21, 2009

HOLY COW!

Communication is kind of a problem in this house. I think there are so many times that there are sometimes when the frustration of our lack of communication is so non existent that I can't help but feel some what sorry for myself. And it isn't me that can't communicate!

A glimpse into what I mean before I get to the holy cow part: Yesterday Tyler got up at the butt crack of dawn. Like 3 am. Not kidding. He was happy, mom um no! He had PT and OT yesterday as well which is a total throw of his schedule. He is not that set on schedules where he freaks. In fact I am not even sure he knew it was not the right day. What threw him off was the new contraptions he is to wear. He only had to have them on an hour. While getting on his shoes he was crying and crying and crying. His dad got him calm and the trip to PT was not as bad as I had anticipated. He was fine. He wouldn't let me leave him at PT which is abnormal but otherwise he was fine. He walked for Rachel and played his game for Jackie. He was allowed to take his shoes/braces off on the way home.

He played all day with Corine ( his respite lady) and we knew hew as exhausted. He fell asleep on our bed way late. We woke him up at 6 pm and bed time is at 8. He is a bear when he wakes up then compound his lack of verbal skills and you can only imagine the frustration he has. Dallas and I together couldn't figure out what he wanted. Finally we got him to sign SOMETHING. He wanted water, pool and something else. But he signs PULL not POOL. But it means the same thing to his ears.

So needless to say, communication is huge.

His speech is getting cut in Utah and he has been out of speech here for about a month. It was so hard to get use to the idea that he won't have it. He needs to talk. He needs the therapy.

While we were waiting to get our braces I thought I would go through the " Can you say this game?" We have been super working on just the basic sounds like Ba, Da, ta.. you know the stuff your 9 month old says.

He will say Ma or mom fine, and we FINALLY got him to say Ba. It was huge. We made a huge deal out of it. We let him be the praise junkie he is and then we moved on to something new. Those that know him know he won't say Da or dad at all unless it is by sign. Sign is fine. It is nice to see he KNOWS Dallas. But hearing it is way better.

SO, in the middle of a nasty circle K bathroom ( I really really had to go and Bret was still closed) he wanted to touch the floor. I said "ew no. Its Dirty! Can you say Da da Dirty?" SERIOUSLY we do this ALL day. When he wants something we say can you say "Fo fo food." I am sure people think we are NUTS. He looked at me and smiled and said Da. I gave him the praise junkie YAY and asked again. And again, and again. I finally called Dallas but he didn't answer and was super excited.

I was afraid he would pull a Tyler and NEVER say it again. But sure enough when we got home he said Da. When I would ask him to say Dad he would say Da and sign dad at the same time. It was making his dad BEAM from ear to ear.

So HOLY freaking cow! He has a new sound.

Signs and sounds he is currently making: A glorious LIST for YOU! ( the big words IE computer are all signs or approximations of signs)
Da
Ba
who ( like owl talk who who!)
T sound
S sound
Computer ( Dallas LOVES this one)
Dad
mom
Elephant
tiger
lion
monkey
pull
pool
water
all done
more
food
yummy( this one is just a sound he makes)

I think that is it for now. As you can see it is not extensive but it is a START and we love that he is progressing no matter what the speed!

2 comments:

Nordstrom's said...

Have you ever tried the Signing Time Videos? We use them with our son who has Autism.

Melissa said...

Oh Nancy! I know how exciting that is!! We have the same problems with our son too. It is so exciting to have progress no matter how small or how far in between. I hope your move goes well.