This is something I stumbled upon accidentally .
Many times I have just randomly asked Alyssa something I know full well she doesn’t know . Why I do this?
I have no idea . It’s never intentional .
I strongly believe in expectations . Alyssa needs to have someone expect more out of her . Even If it beyond what she knows or where she is . For example ; if I don’t expect her to talk she won’t , or if I don’t expect her to understand or be able to complete a task , she won’t . Although in reality She has suprised me many times .
One night about 6 months ago me and Lexi ( my youngest daughter 13 at the time ) were sitting at the Kitchen table writing our names on a piece of paper . Alyssa kept coming over and seemed curious to what we were doing .
I had her come sit and write her name which I knew she could do and then her last name which she did . Then I randomly said can you write sun . I l knew she can copy it if you wrote it first and sun was a word she always would copy . But never on her own , well she wrote sun and about 10 other words I asked her too . Me and Lexi stared at each other in disbelief . Like what !!?Now some words were spelt wrong , but you could tell what that were .
She was actually able to write the whole alphabet . Then I decided to turn the paper over and write a word just to see what she would do . I mean there is no way she would know A: she can’t talk , B : she needs pictures or some kind of visual symbols to under stand . So I write a word she knew it , so I write another she knew it , then another I almost fell out of my chair could not believe it .
Since she has been at the new program and they don’t work on stuff like this .. She has lost some of this skill , I tried to have her write some words and she couldn’t really do it . She could only do a couple and not spelled right . But , I wrote some words down and she knew what they were .
A couple of nights later I did it again and added a few more and she knew ( most ) not all of them . Now it’s hard because she doesn’t talk and her speech is unclear so I tried some words that she could at least attempt to say .
She likes animals so I started with some simple ones . She is funny though because if she can’t say it she will tell me the sound the animal makes. She has a lot of difficulty with certain sounds the C sound especially so when I write cow she will say moo . I think it’s good though because she is finding another way to tell me what It is .
That is all I want , for her to be able to communicate in some way . This shows some potential for communication in her future . Could she learn to write or read ? This opens up a whole new avenue of communication for her . The person they said would never talk , never understand without visuals , is so severely delayed that she just can’t function past her sensory and cognitive delays .
Always believe ! Believe in your child , believe in your instinct , expect the unexpected .
#nevergiveup
Autism adventures with Alyssa 