hello everyone! i was so into writing this post tonight and almost through when my computer decided it needed to update! i lost everything i had written!! so, i am starting over. maybe it will be better than the original? but, i logged on tonight to share some great news about sir dantes.

last night ms. maxie had a bad dream that there was a big, hairy spider in her bed! at three in the morning she came to ask me to check her bed. i told her to crawl in bed with us…big mistake!!! i slept in such an awkward position that when i woke up this morning i had a horrible kink in my neck and could barely turn my head. my shoulders hurt, my neck hurt, and my head hurt all day! so, probably needless to say, when i got home from work i was not a happy mommy.

Follow up:

all i wanted to do was feed the babies, bath the babies, and put them in bed. so, i set about my evening task as quickly as i could. i was not in a patient mood and had absolutely no humor. however, i did go and apply some icy-hot so by the time i was getting sir esmond dressed in his jammies i was feeling a bit better.

the “cat in the hat” was playing on the television in his room. now while i was feeling a little better i was tempted to turn this video off. i do not like this video at all! love the books; can’t stand the video. the music gets on my nerves. but, i left it on because i was to blah feeling to get up and turn it off. so, i am having sir dantes get dressed and then i noticed that he is actually interpreting the video in sign language!

now, he doesn’t know the sign for every single word but the ones he knew he was signing…not, eat, fox, house, rain, train, tree, green…it was absolutely amazing and wonderful to watch. i believe i have written in a blog earlier that we have been working with the use of sign language to communicate for quite a while now. this is just another sign to us that it is definitely working. he is understanding what is said to him, he is using his memory, he is communicating the story.

again for any parents that are having non-verbal issues with their child, please try using sign language. start with “baby signs” and “talking hands”. then graduate to “signing times”. and while your child is enjoying these videos with you, check out the asl website. this site is not “entertaining”, but you can put in any word you need and find the sign for it. then use the signs while you are talking. they will catch on and communication will open up.

about 40 percent of autistic children will never develop speech. out of the 60 percent of autistic children that do speak, a proportion of them will be nothing more than parrots. sir dantes is still not showing any signs that he will speak. we can get him to imitate sounds at times, but he is almost four and has yet to say anything but “uh oh”. when he said “uh oh” it was one time and has been almost a year ago. but don’t mistake being mute with being stupid. i have “spoken” with autistic teenagers and adults who tell me that they can speak but due to their sensory issues the sound of their voice is like fingernails on a chalkboard. therefore, they chose to not speak. others are very smart but still never develop spoken language.

usually if an autistic child is going to develop usable language it will happen between the ages of four to five. there have been documented cases of the first words coming as late as nine or ten years of age. but, don’t take any chances. sign language is better than no language at all. have a good night!