Sweetness

Little Bitty actually sleeps in his own bed these days (that was a several-years-long process) but he likes for me to stay with him until he falls asleep. On the rare days that I try to just tuck him in and not climb in next to him, he reminds me, "you wan' to sweep wif me." He's just too cute, and I know I'm going to miss this time when he's older (I already do with Cuddlebug and Bearhug) so I just go with it :).

Anyway, so tonight I was laying there next to him, waiting for him to go to sleep when he reached over and put his little arm around me, patted me on the back and said, "I wuv you."

Heart MELT!!!!

It is SOOO rare for him to say that out of the blue like that, every now and then he says it back when I tell him (which of course I tell him all the time, his response is usually a smile).

I hugged him and told him, "you are SO sweet!"

To which he responded, "I DO wook sweet!"

I couldn't help but laugh because it was so cute the way he said it (reminded me of when Bearhug used to respond to my telling him he was cute by saying, "I AM cute!" lol).

Not sure how to interpret my laugh, he asked me, "aww you jus' kidding?" (he asks that because we joke a lot at our house and he knows that laughter is a cue that someone is kidding).

"No, I'm not kidding. You ARE sweet."

He smiled and rolled over, snuggling in his blankies.

He's sleeping now, I definitely wanted to write this down right away because it's one of those happy moments that I want to always remember in detail :).

Read More >>

Conversations with Bitty

Bitty asked me one evening as I took him upstairs to tuck him in for bed, "does me hab schoo tomowwow?"

I couldn't help but smile, his wording is too cute but it is also an indicator of just how far he's come with his speech and communication skills. You may notice that he didn't say, "do YOU hab schoo tomowwow?"

After a LOT of time and effort, he uses the pronoun "you" correctly most of the time now, meaning referring to the person he's speaking to and not to himself.

It didn't occur to me that there would be a "next step" of differentiating between I and me (is the English language complicated or what?!) until we started hearing sentences like the one I started this post with:

"Does me hab schoo tomowwow?"
"Iss me sick?" (he had to stay home from school a couple of days this week as he was running a fever, he's feeling better now).

Other times (usually at the beginning of a sentence now that I think of it) he does great:

"I don' WIKE DAT!" (we hear that one a lot, sigh)
"I not hungry"

However he decides to word things, I remain infinitely grateful that he is (mostly) willing and able to communicate with us. It means the world to have some insight into what he's thinking (even though sometimes he still leaves us guessing).

He often likes to ask questions that we think he already knows the answer to. Maybe he likes the reassurance of hearing the answers again, maybe he's just making conversation.

For example, he drives his brothers crazy asking things like "do you wike Pokemon?", "wha'ss you fay-brit cuh-wer? Iss wed you fay-brit cuh-wer?" or "do you wike Kirby-right-back-at-YA?" (a cartoon that apparently went off the air years ago but still lives on YouTube).

If he deems the answer "unacceptable" he can be very persistent (ie. when Cuddlebug tried to tell him he doesn't have a favorite color). That can lead to some funny conversations, like Cuddlebug making up random names for colors that don't exist because he refuses to just pick a color and Bitty refuses to stop asking until he gets a satisfactory answer.

Bitty still tends to ignore us at times, and it can take a LOT of effort and repetition to get any kind of response when we are trying to ask him something or initiate a conversation with him. Or (gasp!) trying to get him to do something.

But other times he will actually seek us out and I am loving these little interactions:

Bitty, to me: "Iss Kirby a pink ball?" (grinning)
me: "Yes, Kirby is a big pink ball."
Bitty: "Does Mom wike Kirby?"
me: "Of course I love Kirby, he's one of my favorite characters!"
Bitty smiles in response.
me: "Do YOU like Kirby?"
Bitty smiles even bigger, nodding his head emphatically with a huge grin. Priceless :)

Read More >>

Spell-a-pa-looza

Yesterday both Bearhug and Cuddlebug handed me their spelling lists so we could work on them. Since they each seemed eager to have me quiz them, I opted to alternate having each of them spell every other word rather than go through the lists one at a time. So we got into a rhythm where I'd call out Cuddlebug's name and a word from his spelling list, he'd spell it and then I'd say Bearhug's name and one of his words, and so on. As we were going back and forth Bitty came up to me and interrupted (loudly and with a big grin on his face) "'Bitty'! Cow! C... O... W!!" So cute, he wanted to join in the spelling fun :).

As it turned out he wasn't satisfied with taking a turn every third time, so in order to keep him from shouting over his brothers I had to give him a turn every other time. Bearhug - Bitty - Cuddlebug - Bitty... lol. He was so excited about spelling his words, and you know what? He got most of them right (cow, dog, cat, pig, car, box, fox, and he was close on horse). :) Bearhug and Cuddlebug did great on their words as well, of course ;).





If you enjoyed this post, get free updates by email or RSS.

Read More >>

Interpreting Bitty

Before Cuddlebug and Bearhug were diagnosed with autism, I had never heard of echolalia. Cuddlebug in particular had a habit of frequently repeating back the last thing we said, and except when it was obvious that his response didn't make sense, I just took it at face value as a response. (I learned the hard way that's not always a great idea, misinterpreting a response can lead to a meltdown!)

It wasn't until the pediatric neurologist evaluating the boys actually asked me if they answered yes/no questions that I realized they didn't. As a therapist later told me, it's easier to notice unusual behavior that is present than it is to notice "typical" behavior that is absent.

So after all these years I feel I understand echolalia a bit better, but I still struggle to interpret it sometimes. When Bitty repeats back something I just said, is he answering in the affirmative, or is he just repeating? Sometimes he'll repeat it back with a "no" in front of it and then I know he's answering in the negative.

Example:
Me: "Bitty, are you ready for a bath?"
Bitty: "No weh fo' baf!"

Me: "Whatcha doing?"
Bitty: "No wah-choo doo-in'" (translation: I'm too busy to talk to you right now, or something along those lines)

Other times it's not so obvious.

Me: "Would you like some cran?"
Bitty: "cwah"
(I pour him a cup of cranberry apple juice)
Bitty: "no cwah"
Me: "But you said you wanted cran"
Bitty: "you wah chwokka miwk?"
Me: "No... do YOU want chocolate milk?"
(a happy dance)
Bitty: "YYYESSS!"

He gets creative sometimes, repeating back questions I have asked him before, that he wants me to ask him again (like "you want chocolate milk?" or "you want your trains?" lol). I've noticed that when he's repeating, he can say all kinds of words, even sentences and entire dialogues. Like the Pledge of Allegiance. His words are clearer when he's repeating something too. His "spontaneous" speech is more often shorter (one word or a brief phrase) and harder to understand.

Sometimes there's a "delayed reaction" aspect too.

Friday, dh asked him what he did at school that day. He answered with the name of one of his teachers.

About 2-3 hours later, he was sitting with me on the couch with his drink and some trains. He pulled the cup from his mouth and said, to no one in particular, "house-keepee... bee-bags" (housekeeping, bean bags). Now, I'm pretty sure those are things they have / do at school (the "housekeeping" center at school was one of Cuddlebug's favorites at that age too), so I'm guessing that this was a delayed response to the question about what he did that day. Today he found a little bean bag in the toy box (long since forgotten) and was repeating what sounded like a game that they must have played at school with bean bags.

It's these repeated conversations that are starting to give us a greater glimpse into his days. It's almost like getting a tape-recording of a little snippet of his day, because he doesn't "narrate" it, he says it word for word as if he was back there again. His weekly class newsletter said they learned about boys vs. girls last week. I asked him, "are you a boy or a girl?" He answered, "a goowul" with a giggle. (he has a silly sense of humor). Then he started into what sounded like his teacher's instructions, "ith yo' a bowee, tushyo' fee'" (if you're a boy, touch your feet)... "ith yo' a goowul, tushyo' nose." He pretty much ignored me as he did this, not really engaging me so much as reliving what was apparently a fun activity :).

A year ago, his words were few and far between. That was about the time he finally started saying words here and there, before that time he was pretty much non-verbal. It was about a year ago that he finally said "mama" again after he stopped saying it when he regressed. Nine months ago, the only answer he gave to the question of what he did at school was the word "skoo-bus" even though he's never ridden the bus so I can only guess it was just something he associated with school.

He's come a long way in the past months and year. He's talking so much more now, and yet so much of what's going on in his mind remains a mystery. For example, I have no idea why he says, "May-bis" (Mavis, one of his trains) whenever he sees me heading to work or coming home from work. Is it an association because "Mama" and "Mavis" both start with the same letter? So does "Molly" but he never says that when he sees me? Does he think I look like Mavis? Gee, I hope not ;).

As K said recently, it's hard to really know what he knows and what he doesn't. He surprises us often, and I have no doubt that more surprises are in store :).





If you enjoyed this post, get free updates by email or RSS.

Read More >>

Four-giveness

A few weeks ago (the week that Bitty did great in church), his class learned about forgiveness. At the end of the lesson, his teacher had each of the children practice saying the word to help them remember what they had learned about.

She broke it down since it's kind of a big word:

"For-"

"-giveness"

The next week, I wondered if he still remembered so I asked him what he learned last week. He needed a little prompting but then he repeated back:

"for-gibness"

"Good job!" I told him.

Then, with a smile, he continued on:

"Fie-gibness... sih-gibness... sebuh-gibness..."

"Nie-gibness..."

"Elebuh-gibness..."

I couldn't help but laugh, he was counting. I guess it makes sense, if you're thinking the "for" at the beginning is actually a "four," lol. I wonder if he's expecting a follow-up lesson on "twelve-giveness"?





If you enjoyed this post, get free updates by email or RSS.

Read More >>

Full of surprises!

So Sunday we had a rough day at church. Without going into all the gory details, it involved one major meltdown, a couple of smaller ones, a lot of over-stimulation, and a certain little boy almost getting stepped on a couple of times while rolling on the floor.

We also learned that while the seat-belt clip does in fact keep Bitty from unhooking his seat belt while driving, it does nothing to prevent him from squirming his way out of the seat belt altogether. Sigh. We had to pull over so I could jump into the back to keep him in his seat. Oh, and I'm really, really, thankful for child safety locks on car doors.

Anyway, on a brighter note, we had a few minutes at the beginning of primary where Bitty was actually sitting in his chair and semi-paying attention. Every week they have one of the kids read a scripture and then everyone repeats it along with them.

Well, Bitty heard everyone saying the words together so he tried to join in, only I noticed he wasn’t saying the same words. I listened closely and heard "Ameh-ca... un nay-shuh... iddizibul..."

I thought to myself, is that what I think it is?

I listened some more... "justih fo’ aww"

Sure enough, he was saying the Pledge of Allegiance. :) I don’t think anyone else caught it, but I was beaming – he was doing his best to participate and wow, he actually knows the entire Pledge of Allegiance!

I got him to say it again at home for dh and I took a video. He pronounces things in his own way, but I think he's got some pretty good approximations for some of those big words, no? Here it is:









If you enjoyed this post, get free updates by email or RSS.

Read More >>

There are some things moms can't "fix"...

...and the rotation of the Earth on its axis is one of them.

So despite the disdain of a certain little boy (cough-Bitty-cough) for the time of day known as "nighttime" it nevertheless comes every 24 hours, without fail. And with it often comes bitter complaints and sometimes even a full-blown meltdown as denial kicks in (thankfully not every night though!).

"Iss daytime o' nighttime?"

Not wanting to be the bearer of bad news, I play dumb and send him to check for himself. "I don't know, go look out the window. Is it daytime or nighttime?"



He looks, sees the darkened sky, and returns with a mischievous grin.

"Iss daytime!"

"Are you sure? It looks like nighttime to me."

The problem with nighttime, of course, is that it inevitably leads to "bedtime" and that is a horror that must be resisted at all costs.

He looks outside again. The waterworks start. "Iss not daytime, iss niiiighttiiiime!" Tears of agony.

A few nights ago in the midst of a particularly intense meltdown, we heard rain begin pounding the walls and windows. I'm not sure what the problem with rain was, but he got even more upset than he already was. "No rainy, SUUUUNNYYYYY!" Wails of anguish. He looked outside and saw that it was pitch black. He decided to concede that it was in fact nighttime, but he was still protesting the rain. "No rainy, MOOOOONYYYY!"

LOL, as soon as he said it, I wondered, why don't we call a moonlight night "moony"? Shouldn't "moony" be the obvious nighttime equivalent of "sunny"? And why did I never think of that before?

Anyway, the meltdown went on for a while longer until he wore himself out, but the whole "moony" thing lightened my mood a bit anyway. :)






If you enjoyed this post, get free updates by email or RSS.

Read More >>

Bitty's latest phrase

"how coo' mie?"

The first time he said it I thought, surely he didn't just say...

"Did you just say, "how cool am I?"

He grinned with a happy dance that confirmed that was exactly what he said and repeated, "how coo' mie, 'Bitty'?"

LOL, "you're pretty cool, 'Bitty'"

I'm not sure where he heard it, it's not a phrase his brothers really say. I'm not sure if he really knows what it means either, but it's really cute whether he does or not. And now he says it all the time!





If you enjoyed this post, get free updates by email or RSS.

Read More >>

Mine!

This is from May, I wrote it and apparently forgot to post (oops).

"Mine!" is a word heard often among young children. I'm not sure at what age it typically starts, but in our family, 4 seems to be when it originates. That was the point at which we first heard Cuddlebug and Bearhug say "mine" and recently Little Bitty said it for the first time too.

We were at a church event and Cuddlebug and Bearhug were looking at one of Bitty's books. Little Bitty was unimpressed, and came out with one of his clearest sentences yet:

"Mine! Dass MY book!" he yelled.

He clamored across my lap in an attempt to yank it from Cuddlebug's hands.
"Dass MY book! Dass MY book!"

Cuddlebug seemed oblivious, so I nudged him and asked him to please give Bitty the book. He was about to protest when I handed him a different book. The trade was accepted, the original book returned to Bitty, and the escalating scene was diffused. Whew!

This was in the middle of an otherwise quiet moment. Perhaps it might have sounded rude to the other people there, and I worked quickly to diffuse the situation, but I couldn't help feeling excited for his reaching this developmental milestone.

Good for you, Bitty. That IS your book, and I'm proud of you for recognizing that fact and for not being afraid to say so. I'm grateful that you used your words (albeit loudly) to say what you wanted, rather than just jumping across my lap, smacking your brother, and yanking the book from him.

I was equally proud of Cuddlebug's reaction. No screams of indignation. No squeals of "but I had it first!" He accepted the trade peacefully enough, and he moved on.

Meanwhile, Bearhug was pacing vigorously in the back of the room. When that no longer helped, he laid down on the floor and started rolling around. I knew it was overstimulation and not misbehavior, so I didn't intervene. He was in the back of the room where he wasn't distracting anyone unless they happened to turn around. I was proud of him too, for finding a quiet outlet for his overstimulation and actually staying in the room with the rest of us.

Luckily, it was a fairly short event :).





If you enjoyed this post, get free updates by email or RSS.

Read More >>

Mondays in Motion: Talking and spelling

For this month's Mondays in Motion I'm sharing a new video of Little Bitty talking. :) He got a Leapster2 for his birthday and loves playing it, and in this video he's doing his own version of the spelling game on the fridge, starting with his favorite word ("Thomas," what else? lol). He's picked up some new phrases from the games, like "wes sou' da wuhd out" (let's sound the word out), "wha cuh nest?" (what comes next?") and "preh da A buh" (press the A button). Much of what he says is still repeating back words and phrases he's heard from us or on his games, some of his phrases are more applicable to conversations than others :). (It's hard to fit "press the A button" into a conversation, but that doesn't stop him from trying).

I love the part where he says, "Oh, YEAH!" after he spells Thomas, lol :).

It's your turn! If you don't make it today, feel free to join in anytime during the week. :)

If you enjoyed this post, get free updates by email or RSS.

Read More >>

I'm back...

It's been a loooong week at work, lots of hours and not much time for blogging (obviously).

I have some stuff to post, which I will hopefully get caught up on sometime this weekend, but for now here's some of the latest overheard from Little Bitty:

He loves to sing - as his speech is developing, so is his ability to sing. One of his favorite's is the "Train Ride" song from Yo Gabba Gabba.

"Trayah trayah go' nekka trayah, trayah trayah go' nekka trayah... trayaaaahhhh, a tray-ahhhh!" (translation: "train ride, train ride, goin' on a train ride... train ride, a train ride!") with a little "chugga-nugga-chugga-nugga-chugga-nugga-CHOO-CHOO!" in the middle. Sometimes he sings it, sometimes he screams it.

And today, he started singing "no moh muh-kees chutenonna beh" (no more monkeys jumpin' on the bed). I started off another verse for him and he finished up, "mama cahjah dahr anna dahr-seh, no moh muh-kees chutenonna beh" Such a cutie! I'll try to get him on video singing :).

He learned a new body part too, lol. He started pointing to his feet, nose, etc. and waiting for me to repeat it back to him, and then he patted the front of his pull-up and looked at me. Guess he wanted to know what that was, so I told him. As much as intellectually I know we should teach them the technical terms, those just aren't words I really want to hear over and over (and I'm not going to type it b/c I don't want someone googling it to end up here), so I taught him "wee-wee." (plus it's easy to say). I thought the way he asked me was cute :).

He's also repeating back phrases that he hears:

"uh-oh, de-geh-yee-oh" (uh-oh, spaghettios)
"towee awsuh" (totally awesome - dh taught him that, lol)

He's repeating so much now, although I still haven't managed to get him to repeat back, "I love you." We'll get there!




If you enjoyed this post, get free updates by email or RSS.

Read More >>

Little Bitty at the petting zoo

Little Bitty had a petting zoo visit his school recently, and dh went to visit and take some pictures. Bitty wasn't shy at all, he loved the animals! Farm animals are his favorites anyway, so I knew he would be excited to see them up close :).




Every time we ask him if he had a good day at school, he says, "School bus." I suppose that means yes? I hope so anyway. He seems happy when he says it. Whenever we ask him if he's happy about something, he says, "Happy face!" LOL he cracks me up :).




If you enjoyed this post, get free updates by email or RSS.

Read More >>

"Swiss cheese" development & frustrating conversations

I'm pretty sure that's not a technical term, but I remember reading a while back about how children with autism exhibit "swiss cheese" development. The idea was, compared with their NT peers, kids with autism often have at the same time, areas where they are quite advanced and areas where they are significantly delayed.

We've seen that with our twins, and we're seeing it with Little Bitty. While other kids his age are doing the 6 or 12 piece puzzles, he can breeze through one with 36 pieces in a few minutes. He can recognize / read some words (ok, mostly names of Thomas characters, but it's a start) and the other day he even spelled the word "Thomas" all by himself! He can count at least to 20, and knows his letters and shapes.

On the other hand, most kids his age can speak clearly in short sentences, express thoughts and ideas, create elaborate pretend play scenarios, and color with ease. Little Bitty still struggles to express even basic wants and needs. He's doing better every day, but so much of his speech is still babbling, and it's hard to figure out how much of it really is babbling vs. actual words that we just don't understand. Yesterday I felt so bad because I could tell he was trying to tell me something, he kept repeating the same word over and over but for the life of me I couldn't figure out what it meant. :(

The words that we do understand are still often approximations of the word, although there are some words he can say pretty clearly. It has only been in the last few months that he's started imitating. That was a huge step! When he wants something, he is still more likely to try to physically manipulate those around him than to talk (like today, he wanted me to color so he kept jamming his marker into my hand and pushing my hand to the paper).

I know based on the cool stuff he can do that he's a bright guy. But sometimes I find myself wondering just how big our communication gap is, how much does he really understand? Just when I think things are going pretty good, we have a conversation like the other night. It went like this:

LB: [screaming, having a fit]
me: I... want... [that's the prompt for him to fill in the blank which he doesn't always do, sometimes needs a LOT of prompting]
LB: "crwah" [that's Bitty-speak for "cran," his word for cranberry-apple juice]
me: Ok, you want some cran?
LB: [shaking his head] NOO! [he starts screaming again]
me: Ok... let's try again. I... want...
LB: "treh" ["trains"]
me: You want your trains?
LB: [shaking his head again and giving me the 'what is wrong with you woman?!' look] NOO!!
me: Ok... I... WANT...
LB: "D-D?" [DVD's]
me: Do you want me to get your DVD's?
LB: [looking at me like I was an alien] NNNOOOO!!!
me: I'm confused
LB: digga digga digga... diGUH diGUH diGUH!!!!! [he returns to his screaming fit]

Sigh. I'm pretty sure he knows what "no" means at this point (as compared to "yes"), and I know he knows what "cran," "trains," and "DVD's" are. So why the contradiction? I can only guess it was the result of a tired, cranky Bitty who probably didn't really know what he wanted, and so he just kept saying the names of his favorite things. But somehow when he heard me repeat them back, he knew that wasn't it so he just got more upset. Eventually, after another hour or so of screaming, stripping down (totally, when he gets really upset he doesn't even want his pull-up on), rolling around on the floor and trying to kick the door down, he finally settled down and went to sleep.

Thank goodness he was in a better mood when he woke up the next morning.

Read More >>

He said "mama" tonight :)

I've posted before about how it is very rare for Little Bitty to actually say "mama" -- just wanted to share that he said it tonight! It was getting close to bedtime, he walked over to me with a big grin on his face and said "mama" as he climbed into my lap to cuddle.

Of course he doesn't stay still for long, he got up and said "da-dee" (also rare!) and crawled over to cuddle with dh for a minute. He did the back and forth a few times before finally settling down.

Read More >>

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 :).

Read More >>

More words from Mr. Bitty...

Little Bitty is a man of few words, but he continues to add new ones here and there. Here's one of his new words - honeybun, aka "huck-a-doh." I love the way he says it :).

Read More >>

Lego creation & words from Little Bitty!

Cuddlebug and Bearhug like to call the things they make "creations." A creation can be anything -- a drawing, lego construction, geotrax track design, a fort, etc. Today I found a pretty cool lego creation in their playroom -- it's an elevated train track complete with buffers and a dock loader.

Little Bitty was pretty excited when he saw it (what train-lovin' little boy wouldn't be?) so he decided to put it to good use. I have to say I was impressed that the construction was sturdy enough to withstand repeated use by Mr. Destructo.

Since I already had my camera out I shot a few video clips of LB playing, and caught some of his words too. Nothing like some Thomas trains to get him talking :), he likes to say their names. I love to hear his voice! And his laugh is beautiful.



He's making progress on his words, for example, he used to pronounce "Percy" as something that sounded like "pooh-foo" but now it actually sounds more like "Percy."

Read More >>