The little things your autistic child does

I have spoken a lot about our little monkey and his recent ASD diagnosis, it has been a rollercoaster to get this far and now that we are, our journey is not slowing down.

We have developmental targets, assessments, specialist teachers, therapy and strategies to accommodate and put in place. As it stands, our monkeys social skills are at 6-12 months and his language is at 5 months. He is completely non verbal and does not sign or use much non verbal communication, it sounds like the world’s most difficult thing to deal with but to us, he is exactly as he should be. He makes sound effects and some ‘baby babble’ sounds and no spoken language at all.

Communication

Anyway, a couple of weeks ago I was standing in my living room when my little monkey guided me backwards by holding on to my leg and when I was then stood in front of the sofa, he pushed me backwards to sitting. He had never done anything like this, ever. It was huge, because it meant that not only did he take notice of what was going on around him but he cared enough about where people were.

Fast forward to this week and he has started to take mine and his dad’s hand and guides us to where he wants to go. He took his dad by the hand and walked him to the front door, placed his hand on the door handle and waited. This was such a breakthrough for our boy, he was communicating!

He hadn’t spoken a word or learned a sign, but he communicated a need and showed us exactly what he wanted. He is developing non verbal communication.

Eye contact

Little monkey has been seeing a specialist autism teacher for a few months and usually he just has a nosey through her bag, plays with some of the toys and occasionally will swap to a different activity when encouraged to. Today, he engaged fully and even made eye contact on a couple of occasions. Finally after weeks of them working together, he has accepted her into his play and is positive about her engagement.

Affection

Now, we don’t get a lot of affection from Noah, not in the sense that you might expect from a 2.5 year old but actually in the last few months he has sought our attention more and more. With me he will put his foot in my hand for me to rub it when he is lying in bed. With his Daddy he will climb on his lap and lay with his back to his Daddy’s chest and puts his Dad’s hands around him, it is when they are sat like this that he will stay still for any length of time. These moments are precious and while he won’t come to us many times for a cuddle, these are his little ways of wanting us close to him.


There are probably a few more but these are the ones that are developing at the moment and make us smile everyday, our monkey is amazing and is making such massive progress at the moment and we couldn’t be prouder.