We Used to Fear He Would Be Non-Verbal

It wasn't until last year that the Little Man started speaking sentences, and even then, only we could understand him (and only sometimes). That's not so much an autism thing, but an apraxia thing. I mention it also because not a lot of people, including professionals, know about Childhood Apraxia of Speech (CAS). It's a motor-planning speech disorder. Therapy helps, but it will never go away completely. It means, for the most part, he understands very well, but his body is not reliable when trying to express what is in his brain. The whole body type of this condition is called dyspraxia, which he also shows symptoms of. In fact, I often believe his apraxia/dyspraxia is more challenging to him than autism is. It is quite a double-whammy of communication challenges.

Anyhow, we were at some point very concerned and thought maybe he would never be able to make himself understood verbally. With lots of speech therapy, he went through a huge leap in development and now speaks TONS. I have yet to capture one of his amazing monologues on video (he tends to get shy around cameras) but I can try to capture his more verbal moments by writing them out from memory.

Here are two recent events where he got really excited and the words just came flowing out.


I took him with me to the garage to get the tires changed:
"I love this place! We need these tires! We need these...things! (Those are rims) We need those rims! (Those are too big for our car). Oh we need these ones. What are those? (Those are windshield wipers) Look at them! They cost $150. (No, those are 15" blades) Oh my GOD! There are magazines here with monster trucks! I love monster trucks!"

I took him to his great-great aunt's house for her birthday:
"I love your place. I love your door, there's a flower on it. Oh look, you have a table. She is in this house again (This is Aunties' house. She lives here). It's your birthday. I made a blueberry cake for you. You need to eat it now! Eat it, eat it! You want to share with me!"

LOL. This kid cracks me up and I enjoy every moment. Believe me, after being silent for so long, we never tell him to stop talking. 

More Sentences!

It is wonderful that we've been moving from just words, to more full sentences. The things that come out of his mouth are surprising and funny. We know he is listening to us at all times! Oh oh!

Now when the Little Man trips or falls, he says, "I meant to do that!"

We went to visit and were knocking on his granny's door to get in and he said, "Hello? Can you hear me?"

It's so cute because these are not necessarily phrases we actively taught him, just things he has picked up on his own.

We have a lot of people visiting our apartment since we're moving, and he asked them, "what doing in my house?" I wasn't around at the time and Hubby didn't really explain it to him, but I told him he needs to explain to him why we're allowing strangers to walk in our house. I'm sure it doesn't make any sense to him.

In other good news, we got an appointment with the special autism school for an evaluation. I really hope he gets accepted for September. I think he'll really enjoy school.

Feverish Conversation

Over the last two months, the Little Man has been suffering from what seems to be one long virus that won't leave us.

We've had two episodes of fever - the first one was long-lasting but low. This second one is quite high and I'm hoping will only last a day or two. We've taken him to the doctor, but they just say it's the virus that's going around and we have to wait it out. (In between this time, we all got the flu shot, but I don't think it even had a chance to take effect with all this going on!)

Anyway, the funny side effect of the very high fever is the Little Man is talking up a storm. He just won't stop talking. It almost seems like he's drunk or manic. At least he's a happy drunk!

He comments on everything he sees. He says "hi" and "bye" when entering and leaving rooms. It just doesn't stop!

Rather than be annoyed though, I find it funny and quite like it. It gives us a chance to hear just how much he knows and to hear his sense of humour.

At the same time, I wish he didn't feel so crappy. It's no fun being sick, but he's such a trooper.

What weird things do your kids do when they have a fever?

Out The Mouths of Babes

I am a beach bum and I'm happy my son inherited my love of the sand and sea. Maybe it's because I took him to Barbados when he was only 3.5 months old or maybe it's in his genes. I don't know, but I'm glad he likes the heat and water like I do.

We've also taken family vacations to Florida three times so far and plan to go back at Christmas. I keep a magnet and postcard of Fort Lauderdale beach up on our fridge to remind us of good times and weather. Recently, the Little Man has been demanding to see them and he points at them and says, "beach! Go now!"

One evening, we decided to talk to him more about it. He was adamant and persistent, without getting frustrated (good on him!) to get us to understand what he was saying. After a lot of jumbled, incomprehensible sentences came out of him, we broke it down from the beginning.

He said, "beach. Me happy and Dada happy."
Ok, but what about Mama? Wasn't she happy, too?
"No," he said. "Grandpa go in wawa, say 'Bye-bye!'"

Oh my goodness! I couldn't believe what came out of his mouth!

Fighting back tears, I said, "yes, you're right. We put Grandpa in the water and said 'Bye-Bye.' Mama was sad."
"Go see Grandpa!" he demanded.
"No, we can't see Grandpa. He's dead. Maybe he can see you right now, but you can't see him. You can see his picture...."
And by then he was distracted by something else.

It's just amazing because the Little Man is almost three now and he's talking about my sister and I pouring my father's ashes in the sea in Barbados when he was just 16.5 months old.

He sat on the beach and played in the sand while my hubby watched him and took pictures of the whole event.

There he is playing happily. Who would have thought his brain was busy burning this memory into his brain?
It's amazing and I'm glad he remembers this and his Grandpa.

Just goes to show, you never know what will come out the mouths of babes :)