All of a sudden last week Matt started dropping the catch phrases and speaking with inflection in his voice! It has truly blown me away. With prompting he is now saying almost anything! The most special phrases I've heard from him this past week are "hi, mommy" and "I love you, mommy". I've waited almost 4 years to hear those precious phrases from his lips. These still require verbal prompting, but I'll take it!
I'm also starting to hear a few phrases from him that he seems to have come up with on his own. He had his 2nd session of hippotherapy this week. The indoor arena where this is done is full of birds. As he was riding the horse, he all of a sudden looked up and said completely on his own "there are birds up there." Just a simple phrase, but he thought it up on his own and wanted to share it with us. He then repeated it several times very proudly :)
Matt's play skills are improving too. His new favorite game seems to be "ring around the rosie". He seeks me out and asks to play and is an avid participant - he gets to yell "THREE" when it's time to jump up, and he loves it. This is a massive improvement on the child who could lay and stim for an hour off of the lights and sounds of an electronic toy just a few months ago and did not initiate play with others. We've been very intentional in trying to help him learn how to play. It started with removing all of the electronic toys from the house and minimizing the amount of time he was allowed to spend alone during the day. This has been good for all of us, and I certainly don't miss the sounds of toys singing obnoxiously!
Matt is still very autistic and has a lot of sensory issues, but he is making definite measurable progress in learning how to interpret and interact with the world. I'm so proud of my little guy!
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| Matt, May 2012 |
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