A month ago, my 5-year-old son was diagnosed with Autism and is on the high functioning end of the spectrum. Well, he was never non-verbal, but spent a lot of time babbling, echoing, squealing and screaming. About 3 weeks ago my family and I noticed a change in him....he still echos from time to time, but the babbling, squealing and ear-piercing screaming just STOPPED. It's been almost three weeks of joy to my ears. He's also suddenly talking in full, coherant sentences a lot of the time now. It's like he went through a mental growth-spurt. His words are clear and make sense. I can hardly believe it. I really don't know what happened. There was no diet change...no medication. This is literally how drastic the change was:
Up until the age of 5 (which was 3 weeks ago):
Tyler want.....blahlblalhh Tyler go....belhelhbbeha Ha ha ha ma ma ha ha!! Tyler go with mama! Tyler want milk! (scream) Go pee pee! (90% of what he would say would be almost incoherant and would be accompanied by him flapping his arms and smiling up toward the ceiling.)
Tonight at a restaurant:
Him: I don't want anymore food, I'm full. I enjoyed it.
My mom: How are you going to pay for your meal?" she kidded. "If you have no money, you are going to have to do dishes."
Him: I don't want to do dishes. That's ridiculous! I want to go home and play. I want a hot fudge sundae. Can I have more milk? I don't want to eat the spaghetti. I'm full now. I want to go home.
He talked a lot through dinner and he almost seemed like a completely normal 5-year-old to me for the first time. He's been helpful at the store, which is a first. Up until this growth spurt, he was the hyper scene-maker at the store. Crying, fussing, screaming, running from me, etc. Lately, he talks to me while we are shopping and sings songs he learned in preschool. No crying, no scene-making. Just being a great kid.
I'm not sure how it all happened, but it's wonderful. I feel that lately I can really talk to him and get my thoughts accross, whereas before it was like talking to a brick wall. The obsession with certain company logos is still strong as ever and when he looks at them he shudders with joy and flaps his arms more feverishly than ever, but he made HUGE leaps with his communication. For the last month, I've been teaching him at home for about 4 hours per day, but I really don't think that had anything to do with it. I just feel grateful for this jump. I'm still analyzing all the things that changed about him.
YIPPY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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