Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Motor Skills and Brain Skills Unite!


Mummy, I can hop!

And so he can.

Just like that. This morning he couldn't, this evening he can. Something clicked, some shift of thinking and doing... and so, he can hop.

So many times, our coalition of ASD mothers talk about these surges. It seems like you've been working on something (or secretly embarrassed about the lack of something) and then, boom, it's there.

The school holidays are about to end, and I seriously hope this run of development won't end with them.

This morning, Billy sat down at my computer and started to type. He asked how to spell the word 'because' and wondered about the comma (he was right). But here is what he wrote:

PREDATOR AND PREY
Cheetah chased a gazelle.
And Lion hunted a zebra.
Tiger caught a deer.
But Leopard did not catch anything.
Poor Leopard.
Leopard chased a warthog.
He caught one.
Then lion caught a warthog.
Then cheetah caught a warthog.
Then tiger caught a wild pig, because warthogs are African animals.
By Billy
19 January 2010
6 years old

OK, so we've watched too much David Attenborough, and read too many school readers but... that's not bad for 6 years old.
The autistic part of this story is if we asked him to write that story on paper, it wold take approximately three years. He would be sweating and lying on the ground for that whole time, rising only to scrawl a backwards letter the size of a small planet on top of the letter before...
But give the boy a keyboard, and he's Ernest Hemingway.
:)

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

it is funny how they will all the sudden just do something. joel did that with jumping too. his feet never left the ground until all the sudden they did, and he hasn't stopped jumping since. but there have been other things that suddenly appeared and disappeared just as quickly, like pointing. suddenly, he pointed at everything for a whole month, but now i haven't seen a point for nearly 2 years. hmm...the mysteries.
BUT...joel pedaled his trike for the first time yesterday. so happy pedaling here and happy hopping across the globe. life ain't bad, huh?

Anonymous said...

I like the poem. Especially the last sentence. It's that there is always a reason for everything.

Well, I look forward my son suddenly be able to type oneday. I'll send his product then, not sure a poem, a song, a novel!!!