Special exposure
Ooo er!
For some reason this did not automatically publish last night = Rats
Better late than never right?
A long while back, I had a couple of non-verbal boys.
Later, they became……a bit more verbal.
A wee while ago, one of them decided “not to talk” any more, for no apparent reason that I could fathom.
I was worried!
I hoped it was a positive choice on his part, a voluntary mute. I decided to worry and wait. I wondered how long I would have to wait? How long is it possible to remain mute, voluntarily?
Meanwhile, whilst I waited, I found my house suddenly plastered with numerous arrows of varying hues and sizes.
With a little help from his sister in the paper and cutting department, they decided to let me in on the act.
He posted a key to the arrows in chart form and stuck it to the fridge. Pink arrows for food, blue arrows for ‘other needs,’ blue arrows to direct my attention to important matters of interest and green arrows for area from which I was no longer permitted entry.
He added a few pertinent notes just in case I failed to catch his drift.
Everything comes to she who waits. Although for a moment there I returned to times when I would count words per day. Other people still wait.
Why might this be of interest to anyone else other than us? Because there are other skills that we learn, skills that we believe we have mastered, although often a little late in the day. If you find that new skill disappears overnight and you hunt for it for hours, maybe a little time will pass before it comes back again. I call it the “corkscrew effect.” I wouldn’t like anyone to waste valuable worrying time.
The words returned after four and a half days, a feat that I doubt I could challenge myself as I do have a tendency to whitter on a bit.
For more words, you may wish to meet up with “Nonna” or the “Alien.”
September 10th, 2008 at 10:20 am
One of the things that was most frustrating to me were what I considered at first “regressions”. Now it seems to me that what I think are “regressions” are just my daughter’s way of taking time out and regrouping.
ah, the mysteries of autism…
September 10th, 2008 at 10:51 am
wow, i can’t even imagine going thru a voluntary silence. my son is non-verbal but does make noise. our skills are learned at a pretty slow pace, unless it involves pizza or lawnmowers! hee hee
great post.
September 10th, 2008 at 3:41 pm
How could he possibly have time to talk when he was coming up with this complicated system of symbols?
Our kids are awesome aren’t they?
September 10th, 2008 at 4:12 pm
Mine had a period of being non-verbal, after learning words, but he certainly made plenty of noises!
September 10th, 2008 at 4:41 pm
I tried to make a comment earlier, but it disappeared when I tried to put a link into it. I had some remarks which I thought were right witty, but they disappeared from my brain, too.
I’ll just try and stick the link in here, to the blog of my favorite armed autistic redneck woman.
Please see:http://trkelley.blogspot.com/2008/08/equalizers-arent-just-for-audio.html
Dragging links into your comments seems to make things disappear. I hope that link shows up; I typed it in.
September 10th, 2008 at 5:20 pm
dear lord, woman .. i can’t imagine not being in an utter panic after 4 1/4 days! you know your kid. job extremely well done~!
September 10th, 2008 at 5:48 pm
Clearly, with his high level of intelligence talking is optional…seems to communicate extremely well however he chooses.
Poor mom, he’s challenging your thought process, isn’t he?
Still emailing by cell phone?
September 10th, 2008 at 6:02 pm
Maddy, could you please make that link clickable?
Oh, and TR has just attended the wedding of her daughter, too. Maybe she’ll get to be an autistic Grandma!
September 10th, 2008 at 6:05 pm
If I could I would, but it’s beyond my bloggy abilities! Maybe the next commenter can help us out?
Cheers
September 10th, 2008 at 8:46 pm
He may not have been talking, but he sure was communicating!
Which link are you wanting? The one from Justthisguy in the comments? I’ll try:
[url=http://trkelley.blogspot.com/2008/08/equalizers-arent-just-for-audio.html]click here for justthisguy’s link[/url]
September 10th, 2008 at 8:49 pm
I can imagine your worry! But what an amazing communication system in the interim. Your kids, and many others, never cease to amaze me
Still, happy to hear (for both of you) the words did come back.
September 10th, 2008 at 9:30 pm
talk about non-verbal communication “saying” a lot—that is quite a system he developed. but always good to hear those words again.
September 10th, 2008 at 10:09 pm
How true its good to hear his words again…But Im so amazed that while silence took the place there were other communication system that developed with arrows and colors …
I worked long time ago with children who had cerebral palsy and we had child his name is Adnan. He had a severe CP its was even so hard to keep him in a special chair. When he came in a lot of teacher thought nothing much can be done to him. However his mother had so much faith in him and in actual he was communicating through yes and no by opening his mouth for yes and closing his mouth with turning his head for no. He was so alert and was happy boy to be in school.. I will never forget that he came to school one day (it was the month of fasting at that time) while snack time he kept refusing to eat and all wondered why. We finished all the question, finally it was just a joke when I asked him are you fasting and he opened his mouth for yes. (Adnan was 10 yrs and he had body of 8 months child) but he opened my eyes to many things in life.
September 11th, 2008 at 12:25 am
My son makes and leaves arrows around the house quite frequently. It’s always intriguing to try to figure them out!
September 11th, 2008 at 4:42 am
As much as Gus’s incessant chatter can make my head want to explode, I would never wish him to stop. I can understand your panic! I’ve learned to look at regressions as precursors of developmental leaps, and it seems your guy may confirm this? Symbolic communication? Pretty clever!
September 11th, 2008 at 4:57 am
Interesting…
September 11th, 2008 at 11:35 am
This is so interesting to me. When I was a child I read the book “I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings” in one afternoon. I then decided to “go mute” as Maya Angelou had done. Like your son, it only lasted a few days. It was just too hard. (I think of my brief selective mutism often – now that I have a nonverbal child.)
I find your children amazing and inspiring (what a genius communication system!), and I am so glad they are “a bit more verbal” now. Gives me hope.
September 11th, 2008 at 11:20 pm
That would have worried me too! I love the arrows though, that’s pretty creative.