Along with progress came lot of crying (Mom)

This week I’ve spent the most time “Son-rising” Nathan. He was absent for 3 days so we had a lot of opportunities.

Let’s start with the bad news, towards the end the week, he was crying a lot. I’m still trying to figure it out. I believe he got so used to my attention that whenever I turn my head to talk to his siblings or my friends, he just gets really upset and cries. it’s quite consistent, I turn my head or attention away to talk to someone and then he cries.

Now the great news. He’s showing a lot of glimpses of improvements.

Today he was really trying to process language. He does not converse yet. He cannot answer why questions yet but I have managed to get him to answer “because I like it” somewhat robotically to general “why” questions. So I was listening to him talking to himself. This was after we heard a very subtle child’s cry at the train station. He was looking out the window when he asked himself, “why are you crying?”…a pause, followed by, “because I L…”. Another pause as if he was analyzing if “like it” was the appropriate answer. Then I prompted him, “because I feel sad”. Nathan then resumes his conversation (with himself). “Why are you crying”…pause…”because I feel sad”. I was never sure if Nathan really understood it when I asked him to reply, “because I like it”. But I am very certain he understands his new conversation. Little by little, my son is going to learn to converse with me!

Earlier during the day, we went to KobekoLand as a school trip. That’s a kid’s room that kinda looks like an indoor playground. The last time we went Nathan only played with one equipment, the, swing on a zip line that eventually dropped him into a ball pool. Today, he actually moved around and explored all the “rides”. He did get quite tired during the second half of the session. Autistic kids usually stick to one thing, maybe because they like routine or they do not have the skill and confidence to do other things. So watching Nathan explore today was great.

Another amazing thing he did tonight was when he dropped his crayon. He actually got down from his standing frame, picked up the crayon from the floor (without me instructing him to do so), he then got up onto his standing frame again and started coloring. He normally wouldn’t care less if he dropped anything. Bending down to pick up anything is really challenging for him. And he normally just puts things in his mouth instead of use them as tools or toys, so I was amazed to see him color.

I now agree with what son-rise says about unlocking social skills and everything else like sensory issues and motor problems, will follow. Aside from the above incident, Nathan has been struggling out or even asking to be “freed” from his wheelchair and choosing to walk or explore. He would normally just sit relaxed and wait for his destination to arrive 🙂

It’s amazing how son-rise, which now feels like the easiest thing to do, is the most productive type of therapy/treatment.