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CrazeyJaneyR
member
I'm here to hear stories about improvement in kids w/ ASD.
CrazeyJaneyR
member
My twins have autism and I really need some positive stories today.
Please share with me about your child and the things that have improved with age & therapy.
Things like - he didn't _________ but he does now. (talk, look you in the eye, show emotion etc). Anything really! What makes you proud? What hurdles have they overcome? I'd like to hear some happy things. Things to be hopeful about and to reach for. Thank you.
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Re: I'm here to hear stories about improvement in kids w/ ASD.
DS's dx is fairly new (August) but with speech and OT he's already making improvements. He now talks to us, not just echolalia, he tells me when he's hungry and even sometimes what he wants to eat. He is starting to respond to questions. Through OT he will now swing on a swing, go down a slide, he sleeps so much better. With his deep pressure and brushing therapy he will now ride in the cart at stores vs making me carry him. His stimming has decreased dramatically.
There are still hurdles and frustrations but the changes are amazing. Last Saturday he told me "I love you mommy" spontaneosly (sp?) for the first tiem ever!!! It was the most amazing feeling and I almost started crying right in the middle of the mall.
OMG< that Is wonderful!! Your heart must have exploded
!!
Thank you for sharing that - it makes me very hopeful!
OMG thank you--when I hear those 3 words for the first time I'm sure I will cry---I don't care where I'm at. OMG that must have been amazing.
OP--my son doesn't have an ASD dianosis--although not ruling it out either--but with special schooling for his delays he's saying much more--still a long way to go but was able to spontaneously repeat words he's never said before the past couple of weeks. He is also putting together some mellisa and doug puzzles--something he was never able to sit through before.
My new "mom" blog: http://realityofamommy.blogspot.com
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Notes:
Even with the improvements he's made I still look for and need to hear happy stories from others. We are all just beginning this journey and I know that there will be many highs and lows. A friend of mine pointed out that the highs, like him saying "I love you" on his own, are there so that we can remember them and hold on them when we hit the rough patches.
We got DD1's diagnosis last March. Even in less than a year, she has made great progress -- especially since starting preschool.
She uses much more inflection in her voice now than she used to. She still scripts a lot/uses functional echolalia, but it's much less than it used to be. She has started singing, and LOVES it -- she even carries a tune pretty well.
Last week she showed me how she can write her name. Lately she's even started going, "Mama, mamamamamamaMAMA!" to get my attention, which she never used to. She tells me that she loves me spontaneously or in return to me telling her, and she comes into our bedroom almost every morning to snuggle with me before we get up for the day. She gets more jokes and funny things on TV/movies -- when she was first diagnosed, she would laugh at things like when Nemo's mom gets eaten in Finding Nemo. :P
She is a great little girl, and I'm so proud of the progress she's made.
DD1, 1/5/2008 ~~~ DD2, 3/17/2010
A little history. DS has been receiving speech therapy through NYC's EI program since July. In Sept/Oct he was referred for a psych eval and on Nov 1st (his birthday) he was diagnosed officially with PDD-NOS. Much paperwork later he started a center-based ABA program on Nov 28th. FFW less than a month and our son is doing the following (which he didn't do before)
1. Pointing to things that he can touch and that are far away.
2. Playing with toys instead of just scattering them.
3. Looking when you call his name - maybe not on the 1st try but on the 2nd or 3rd whereas before he completely ignored us.
4. Initiates peek-a-boo
5. Makes eye contact when you call out to him.
6. Looks to us for a reaction when he does something or is excited by something he's enjoying.
7. Saying "shoo" (shoe), "doo" (door), "soo" (sock), "teeeee!" (toe), "goo" (goose), "pee" (pig) - that's more than he'd been doing in 2 years.
Nothing really seemed all that different to me until this week when my parents who take care of him while DH and I work told me they'd noticed a difference in DS. "He's a different boy" and then today when our svc coordinator was asking us to go through our initial goals and was crossing off so many, we realized just how far our little man has come. Made me a little weepy.
We're starting to encounter ppl noticing little things - mostly that he doesn't talk - and it was making me sad but just listing out the things he can now do that he couldn't do six months ago was the boost I needed. Try it - think specifically to what your little one can do now that he couldn't do before ... and who cares what anyone else thinks!
Then go give LO a big wet one!
Hey CrazeyJaney, my son is very close in age to your twins. He's made a ton of progress (he's in ABA 13 hours/week and has a 2 1/2 hour therapeutic playgroup once per week):
- He now knows about 50 words (only uses a handful regularly, though).
- His receptive language skills have improved tremendously and he usually follows commands now.
- He points! And he is getting better at following a point, too.
- He is imitating us constantly, even oromotor stuff that he would never imitate before.
- He comes over to me to get hugs:)
- He shows a lot more positive emotion and often smiles and laughs.
- His joint attention has really improved. He always looks to me now to make sure I see what he's doing, he points to things to show me something, and brings things over to me to look at. He also always wants to share his food:)
- He knows all his shapes, as well as some letters and numbers. He even sings his ABCs.
I know we have a long road to go and especially when I talk to my friends that have typically developing children DS's age, I can get very down. I'm also nervous about what kind of symptoms/behaviors are going to crop up over the next year or two. But I'm trying to hold on to all the progress and let the other stuff go. When I get one of DS's spontaneous hugs it usually all feels ok:)
Coincidentally, we have been watching old videos over the last two days and I can't believe how different DS is now at 6, compared to 1 or 2 years ago. He was such a flapper, his language didn't make sense, and it was sad to watch us trying to make conversation with him on the tapes that usually went nowhere. He stimmed quite a bit - ran around, clapping his hands, in his own world.
Today, he's in a regular first grade, his report card is excellent, reads 85 wpm, excells in math, but more importantly, the stimming is next to none, compared to the tapes. He carries a regular conversation with us and we can absolutely resolve any issue through conversation with him. He's a great, sweet kid - that, luckily, has not changed :-)
Are there challenges still? Yes, absolutely. Do I believe he's caught up to peers? No - but the difference from a few years ago to today is amazing!
You have a lot to look forward to!
I'm so grateful for these stories. Thank you.
I want my son to be able to say mama one day. SO badly . I want him to be able to talk and be understood. I pray for this and I worry it won't happen. I can have hope though.