The return of "no"

One of the things we've been working with Little Bitty on for a long time is "yes" and "no." He's never really done the head shaking or nodding thing but he does express himself so we've pretty much figured out his signals but wanted to teach him how to use the words yes and no. His speech therapist gave us some PECS cards to use for this too.

Several months ago, he could say no ("nuh") but he would say no for everything, whether his answer was actually yes or no. For example, we'd ask if he wanted some crackers, and he'd say "nuh!" So we'd put the crackers away because he said no, only to have him start jumping up and down, squealing and reaching for the crackers while opening and closing his hands (which means "I want that"). So what he really meant was, yes.

After much effort, he learned to say the word yes ("yets"). Only then, he stopped saying "no" and started saying yes for everything, whether the answer was yes or no. Using the same cracker example, I'd show him the box and ask if he wanted some, and he'd get a disgusted look on his face, shove them away with his hand and give me a resounding "yets!" LOL. Of course I'd tell him, "don't say 'yes' when you really mean 'no'" but he didn't care. He knew I could tell what he really meant.

Just this last week, we've started to hear him saying "no" again, and not only that but he's using it appropriately. It's been so cute to hear him, if I pick out the "wrong" pull-up he'll run to the cabinet saying "no, no, no!" and pull out the one he wants. Or when I wanted to play Guitar Hero and he yelled "no!" and pushed the guitar away.

I haven't heard him say "yes" lately so I don't know if that one's gone into hiding now. But he does give me a huge grin when I finally stumble on what he wanted, so he gets his point across :).

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Planets and bedtime

Little Bitty has developed a keen interest in the planets recently... he has a Baby Galileo video that he likes to watch, and his brothers have an educational toy that gives facts and figures about the different planets, which he loves to listen to over and over. He probably has the mass of Jupiter and the temperature on Mars memorized by now, not to mention how many years it takes Neptune to orbit the sun and how much a 100 lb. person would weigh on Mercury!

We just happen to have a bedroom decorated with a space theme, complete with planets hanging from the ceiling and glow-in-the-dark stars. We did it for CB and BH when they were younger, b/c they liked planets too and well, we both always thought it would be cool to have a room with glow-in-the-dark stars when we were kids :).

Enter Mr. Bitty... the little man who hates to sleep alone because he likes to have someone next to him (and I mean cuddled up close, not just in the vicinity) in order to sleep. Well, now that he is into planets he's decided he's totally fine with sleeping in the "space" room all by himself. He seems to find it relaxing looking at the planets and naming them off (in his cute voice, took me a while to figure out what he was saying, but sure enough he's listing planets!) until he falls asleep.

Now if we could just get him to stay there all night... I keep waking up to find him cuddled up next to me in the morning.

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PECS (Picture exchange communication system)

Feeling a little overwhelmed with this project... we have done homemade picture schedules for CB and BH when they were younger, and I made a whole set of picture cards (from photographs) for LB last year at the suggestion of his speech therapist. I included pictures of his favorite foods and drinks, toys, shoes (to use when going out), family members, books, potty, pull-ups, sippy, you name it. Pretty everything I could think of that he might want to say or that we might want to show him or ask him about, it was in there. The idea was to be able to show him 2-3 cards and have him choose visually what he wanted (ie. show the card for juice and milk and let him tell us what he wants by choosing the card) or to show him what's coming up next (show the card for shoes when it's time to go somewhere). Unfortunately, he was not at all interested in using them for communication, if he saw them he wanted the whole stack so he could flip through them and name them. But if I tried asking him a question and showing him a couple of cards, he threw them at me. Sigh.

Ok, so that was several months ago, and he is now doing pretty well at using the cards in school and speech therapy. So I'm thinking it's time to try again with setting up a picture schedule and some picture cards for communication at home too. It's just such a daunting task! I've found a ton of sites where thankfully I can print out picture to use for free and then laminate them. But there are sooo many words and ideas to choose from. Obviously we need to start simple, so I need to figure out what are the most important ones to start with and go from there. Unfortunately the cards I made him before are destroyed so we're starting over. That's ok b/c I think the ones from school and speech are the ones w/ cartoon-like drawings rather than photos and apparently he likes those better.

If you have any suggestions, please leave a comment. Otherwise, wish me luck!!

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Autism awareness video

I posted this on YouTube a while back, wanted to go ahead and link to it here. This was created to raise awareness about autism. Each of our 3 sons are on the autism spectrum, so this is a topic that is close to my heart as you can imagine.

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A Brief Introduction

I am the mom of 3 little boys - 6-yr-old twins and a 3 yr old. Our twins were diagnosed with autism and sensory integration disorder at age 3. Looking back, there were signs of autism from birth but we didn't recognize them at the time. We knew they were "different" from other kids but we were first-time parents so didn't always realize how different, and when we did we just attributed it to being preemies or twins or boys... until finally by age 3 we knew there was more to it than that.

They have come a loooong way since then! They are now in a regular ed class with resource support through the ASD program at school, and they have pull-out as needed for therapy, sensory breaks, or if they need a quieter environment for something that requires extra focus. They still have challenges, mostly in the areas of communication, social skills, and sensory, but they have amazing talents also.

Our little guy's development was on track until somewhere between 15-20 months, he had started to say a few words and he pointed a lot, but he lost some of those words and stopped pointing altogether. He made less and less eye contact and would rarely respond to his name. It was a gradual change, but by 22 months the signs were stacking up. We talked to his ped at his 2-yr checkup and started the process of having him evaluated. He enrolled in early intervention and was diagnosed with autism at age 2. At age 3, he "graduated" from EI to the early childhood pgm through the school. He's doing well so far, still not talking much but he is interacting more and starting to imitate, which he wouldn't do before.

My husband is a full time SAHD, and has been since our twins were 6 weeks old. His background is in education, and he does an awesome job with our boys.

The reason I started this blog is to have a place to write down all the cute, funny, and frustrating things my kids do all the time. It will be great to look back later and see all the progress they've made. Also, to raise awareness about autism. If there's one thing I'd want people to know about autism, it's that people with autism may be wired differently, but they have the same desire to be loved (however they express it), feelings, and talents just like everyone else. I truly believe that many of the struggles that those with autism and their families go through could be lessened by increasing awareness and acceptance in society.

And, in the midst of it all, you'll find some random thoughts about whatever else is on my mind at the moment, just like the title says :).

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