LOOK !!!!!

With a flourish of a finger, and a joyous phrase, we enter a new phase for Jonathan.

In the past few days, he has started pointing, with his finger at various things that excite him. Tonight it was the 'Wombles' (old BBC tv show) Dvd playing on the TV. He ran up to the TV, pointed at it and almost shouted in excitement.

"Erm... most children point at things" I hear you say. "True", I reply... "most children do, usually from as early as 15 months". [By 15 months most children: Walk without support, say a few words in addition to mama and dada, move arms and legs to assist in dressing, wave bye bye, communicate by gesturing and pointing, finger feed self, and begin using a spoon. http://www.laxfamilyresources.org/child_development.htm]

We are at 5 and a half years and just now seeing some consistency with some of the basic developmental abilities for most children - of course, it delayed due to it's relation to the social aspect of life.. the constant 'boundary' for autistic people.

And just looking at that list I linked, he walked at around 14 mnths, had maybe one other word than mama and dada, rarely assisted with dressing (from fuzzy memory here.. never really took notice on when that changed.. perhaps at 3 yrs-ish), he was waving bye-bye occassionally, which inadverntandly stopped at around 18mnths for perhaps around 2 yrs, and he had no problems feeding himself :) .

Also... another delight, I have yet again to thank the makers of 'Toy Story'. I purchased a CD for the car, basically a script from the movie with a narrator over movie voices. A month later... I had tried a few times to change the CD, but he always refused... only that one would do.

This morning, as we arrived at school... he held his hand over the on/off swicth so I couldn't turn it off, I waited for him (while his sister also got her shoes on) and after around a minute the bit he wanted came on... he then proceeded to amaze me by repeating 'word-for-word' around 6 sentences from the script, in time with the recording. Not just a few words, but almost a full paragraph. (of course... it's echolalia, it's not him saying a paragraph himself... but that definately will be coming!)

Things like this just give me hope for him for the future.. I have no real gauge to measure him by. He is his own man and developing in his way, I don't know how much language he will aquire, how well he will read, how he goes with maths... I see high school being especially difficult for him - let alone the adult world, and besides, we have grade one yet to tackle. {Moderate sigh}

It's too far ahead to be looking in some ways, but it also helps us to be better parents to our other kids. Be YOUR best, do all YOU can, excel with the gifts YOU have... fair advice I should be taking for myself too ;)