Express Yourself (Part One)

Posted on January 19, 2013 by B's Dad

This post is now available in the ‘Life with an Autistic Son’ ebook available to download from Amazon.

LWAAS 3d book cover

This entry was posted in asd, aspergers, autism and tagged , , , , , . Bookmark the permalink.

27 Responses to Express Yourself (Part One)

  1. Maria says:
    January 19, 2013 at 10:07 pm

    Another heartwarming and informative blog which I can so relate to. My son is 5 and 18 months ago barely spoke a word. You can not have a conversation about the weather or his day at school but he can recite the alphabet and the very hungry caterpillar until your head hurts. It is fantastic and a huge leap we still have a long way to go but he surprises almost every day.

    Reply
  2. StephsTwoGirls says:
    January 19, 2013 at 10:22 pm

    and again…. am not stalking you, promise I’m not, just so many similarities with my girl! Laughed at the changing computer to Arabic, nodded at the ‘he’ and ‘she’ issues (just about overcome that one here with lots of repetitive teaching), and giggled at the ‘it’s boring’ – another phrase well used over this way. Lots of expressive language, just not all necessarily at the right time or in the right order – bit like a Morecambe and Wise piano performance. Smile is fab here though too – and haven’t things generally got much easier when you sit back and think about it? How did we ever get through those early years?!

    Reply
  3. debbiejm says:
    January 19, 2013 at 10:24 pm

    I have followed your blog for a long time and until now not really felt compelled to comment but today is the day! You could not have described my son better nor my reaction to his friends and classmates when they talk to me. You write amazingly and your blog is a pleasure to read – I am usually reading with a grin on my face and nodding constantly.
    The learnt phrases drive us to distraction – the current ones are all from Harry Potter, Scooby Doo or Yogi Bear – but wow what a gift and a talent to have thousands of learnt phrases at your instant recollection ready to churn out at the correct scenario. Our children are truly amazing!

    Reply
  4. greeneyesmom says:
    January 19, 2013 at 10:29 pm

    I am compelled!! to read your blog! I have 4 kids, all healthy, no probs but have spent the last 10 yrs attempting to be a stupid as a rock…no actually a rock is smarter…..it does what it is suppose to do! My heart goes out to you and all the parents who have been chosen to love these babies with difficulties…you must be God’s favorites! It pains me to see my actually 3 oldest to have wasted so much of thier lives on drugs….two have come thru almost ok, the oldest is struggling to get back….so BRAVO to you and keep writing….i am impressed!

    Reply
  5. greeneyesmom says:
    January 19, 2013 at 10:31 pm

    sorry, I did not speak clearly…my kids have taken for granted good health and “normalcy!” for the lack of a better word….i feel at a loss and nearly ashamed of them…I have HOPE though…the last one is 16 and doing great…much wiser then them all! love and peace

    Reply
  6. alesiablogs says:
    January 20, 2013 at 5:52 am

    I really appreciate your post. I am glad also you are seeing speech improvement. Our son has speech also, but limited. I hope you continue to see your son blossom! I have shared about my son and hope to share a lot more in due time: http://alesiablogs.wordpress.com/about-luke/

    Reply
  7. Ann says:
    January 20, 2013 at 8:32 am

    Your blog post took me back many years to when my sons were small. They are both on the autistic spectrum and have very different abilities with expressive & and receptive language despite both being verbal.

    I have also felt that bolt from the blue when, out of nowhere, your child’s differences from their peers catch you by surprise despite the fact you’ve known them all along. My boys are 19 & 18 now and things still take me unawares.

    Looking forward to your next post.

    Reply
  8. Amanda Crozier says:
    January 20, 2013 at 1:39 pm

    Great to read as usual. The section about the Hammond phrase and what your son did in class made me laugh out loud. My son will be 5 next month and only has about 2 words, so I am looking forward to seeing an improvement on his speech even if its Hammond type phrases! Looking forward to your next post.

    Reply
  9. sandyfaithking says:
    January 21, 2013 at 2:23 pm

    My son is now a teenager and his early difficulties were with receptive language. Even now, he will ask what a word means, and expects a concrete answer, when of course words change their meaning depending on context. Poor boy thinks the world is mad! He’s probably right. I still treasure his innocence, though.

    B sounds like he’s doing very well – I hope you are proud of yourselves 🙂

    Reply
  10. Tasha says:
    January 21, 2013 at 9:45 pm

    To B’s Dad!

    My son is 6 and we too, have the “he” and “she” battle…. but this has just about now been mastered….. we also had the generalisation of all ladies being called “mum” and before this “mum” and “dad” were considered completely interchangeable!

    But… like your “B” our son now seems to talk for Great Britain – which a one time was a dream!

    Anyway!
    I wanted to share a couple of little things that bring home the different way our special children think and interpret the things we say, it brings a smile!

    In the car the other day, my son was tapping his foot to the music, so I asked him “do you like this music on the radio?”
    He shook his head and replied “no…….. but I think my foot does!”

    Also recently we were sitting (lazily) on the sofa for dinner and my son dripped gravy down his top with the first mouthful. My father was sitting next to him at the time an reached over with a cloth saying “oh, already?”
    To which my son replied “no…….. all brownie granddad!”

    The innocence in his responses reminds me that his mind works in a completely different way, sometimes it is heart warming like on the occasions above, when you put his age into the equation and other times you realise the road ahead is never going to be straight forward!!

    I feel blessed that my son came to me in so many ways! I hope that everyone else out there with there special children so also…. 🙂

    Reply
  11. J's mum says:
    January 22, 2013 at 10:45 am

    I enjoy reading your blog posts but this one put a smile on my face. I often pick up the Nintendo DS to find that the language on the screen is Japanese, luckily I know the route to the game without having to read it and having done it often enough to get it back to the English settting. And yes yes to the whole he/she issue.

    I can also relate to the phrases picked up from tv. Not so long ago, J went through a phase of saying ‘Now then everyone, are you all sitting nicely (or something like that, can’t remember the exact words) just before bedtime stories and both J’s dad and myself thought it was something he had picked up off his teacher at carpet time. But no, it was Driver Dan just before he read his story (Cbeebies Driver Dan’s Story Train). We have a few more phrases going at the moment also off the tv.

    I’m looking forward to reading your next post on receptive language as this is a big area of difficulty for J.

    Reply
    • B's Dad says:
      January 27, 2013 at 2:46 pm

      Thanks J’s mum. Whenever I share stories about B, it’s in the knowledge that someone out there will be nodding in recognition, so thanks for taking the time to comment.

      Reply
  12. Al says:
    January 25, 2013 at 10:10 pm

    I think you need to rename your blog. Psychic dad of an autistic son. Every time something is on my mind, you blog about it! Very much looking forward to your take on receptive language.

    Reply
  13. B's Dad says:
    January 27, 2013 at 2:47 pm

    Wish I could read B’s mind…

    Reply
  14. joseph says:
    March 26, 2014 at 10:43 pm

    My name is Joseph
    I am 13 and i have ASD (autistic spectrum disorder) and although i can still talk my autism still effects me a lot.
    It causes me to have another disibilty called ADHD which means i can’t focus properly at school. It also means that i don’t understand situations, for example up until recently i used to get very badly bullied and i would just consider it a game.
    Another thing it effects is my social skills i can’t really listen to someone without somewhat ‘annoying’ them. It also means i don’t mature as fast and although i am in year 9 secondary school i still play with toys.
    My least faviourate thing about it is my emotions are uncontrolable i get extremely upset or anxious for example o the 20th of january my doggy died and i still lie in bead crying about it now, and also i have 3 brothers but 2 baby brothers and sometimes they get a bit close to the road and i get really worried.

    I hope you understand this and i would like to say thank you for reading = D

    Reply
  15. joseph says:
    March 26, 2014 at 10:51 pm

    other than that i am now a very happy and good boy in science i did very good and when i was very bad at english i did good again! i have lots of friends at school and like to make videos for my youtube with lego for youtube!

    Reply

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