Monday, March 8, 2010

No scrappy goodness today. Instead, here is a video of my little guy "reading" the nursery rhyme book my dear friend Bonnie sent him recently.

Let me point out that Caleb is believe to be Autistic. Actually, we believe he has Aspergers. We don't have a formal diagnosis yet.. We have to wait til July for that but I am pretty sure.
He has Echolalia. Which basically means he repeats things over and over. Like lines he hears from his favorite cartoon (Caillou) and things that he learns at Preschool (The Pledge of Allegiance, songs, etc).
And he still isn't conversing much. IE, Doug or I can ask him how his day was and he won't respond back. And potty training? OMG, not happening!

BUT, on a positive note, He has a memory like I've never seen before and his preschool teacher says he is the smartest three year old she has ever had in class.
And his social skills are fairly good.. he loves playing with the little girls in his class and he does look people in the eye. It's just the communication issue that is a huge problem.

But I still feel like "why God why" so much of the time. He's our only child and we can't have anymore. So I'm praying (literally) that I am wrong and that this is just a fluke and by the time he's four, he'll be talking up a storm.. know what I mean? But if not, we'll deal. We always do. And we love him no matter what.. he is an AWESOME little boy :)

So when he does things like sit down and "read" a book like here in the video, it makes me cry. Every time I watch it.
So I just thought I would share... :)



4 comments:

Deann said...

I can't see the video on IE..am going to try Firefox, but wanted to say that there is a little boy on my '04 BB that had not said anything by age 3-1/2...no words. He has had to have some therapy and is on the autism spectrum but has made huge strides. He is active now in preschool and converses like any other boy or girl his age. There is a lot of hope now with how far they've come with therapy. So if you are right on the diagnosis hold on to the thought that with some help he'll be just fine! And he could just be soaking everything in and will start having conversations just all of a sudden. Keep the faith!

Jenny B in Indy said...

Thanks for the comment, D.
The thing is, he talks ALOT. Like non stop. It just isn't relevant.. not used appropriately, etc.
He recites whole scenes from Caillou or the Backyardigans or something he learned at school.
Sometimes he'll say I want milk or food, whatever but most the time when he's talking, he's just reciting lines from TV.

Early Invention ended at age 3.. he had a speech therapist come to our home once a week up til then. Now he has a speech therapist come to his preschool for a half hour once a week and she's with two other kids so he doesn't get the one on one he needs.
So once we move, we're going to get him moved into a special needs preschool. That is, if we find out he is for sure Autistic.

I really hope this is a fluke and he starts conversating soon. We have hope with little things here and there. His teacher will tell me if he answers her back, etc.

Deann said...

Not sure if you remember this, but remember when Brady was younger and I was worried because all he did was repeat shows? We got really concerned because it was like he couldn't have a 'real' conversation. He was just repeating shows and it was verbatim, which also had us worried. We still worry about him some because he forgets nothing, at all. Anyway, when he was about 4 or so he finally got to where he would have more of a conversation. Honestly, he is just now, at 5, getting to where he will really sit and follow along and carry on a conversation.

Anyway, not the same thing but it took a while before Brady would really have a conversation. It sounds great that he does well in preschool, though.

Jenny B in Indy said...

That is EXACTLY what Caleb is doing and he has a memory like an elephant, too.
Did Brady start talking about the shows when you asked him to or just out of the blue? Cause Caleb does it out of the blue. Most the time it doesn't pertain to anything we are doing.

I need to email you but I cannot remember your email address.
If you want to, but if you don't, that's okay, I understand. You can email me at jennybrannies at ymail dot com
Caleb and I are making cookies.. the timer just beeped.