When your child reaches young adulthood you would think that most the "development" has occurred.As a parent of a child diagnosed with Autism you never know what will happen and you always hold out hope that "your child" will eventually learn This or That! As the years go by you start to question your hope and worry that things will be even more involved because you are not seeing the progress you hoped for. From very long ago it has been known and said that as your child approaches puberty there is a big chance that their development will stop or even reverse.This has been one of my greatest fears.
We have been purging through puberty for several years now and I have to say that I am absolutely pleased that Dakota seems to be continuing to make progress-- DON'T get me wrong they are baby steps but IT IS PROGRESS!
Some of the development is minuscule and may not be noticed by someone who does not live with him but for me its like taking a step on the Moon. Never the less you HAVE to celebrate any improvement with Pomp and Circumstance!
The purpose of this article is to rave about Dakotas conversational skills. He is still only talking about what he wants to talk about HOWEVER what I have noticed is that he is formulating more complete sentences and thoughts. If you are talking about traveling somewhere he may refer to Amazing race but he has made the connection and that's how he relates and tries to "enter" the conversation. Also what I have also noticed is that he is trying to use words he has heard and put them into his sentences and often time the pronunciation isn't perfect but the use of the word is right. He referred to someone "grissing" their teeth the other day . Of course I applauded his effort and told him he was right but it was "gritting" his teeth and he was so receptive and happy to learn. I have also noticed that he is trying to put more than one sentence together -- he gets flustered and his words are sometimes rough but coming from a kid who has so much pent up inside of him with a high cognitive level I am thrilled that the words comes any way they can.
What I want to say is never give up and always hold out hope you just don't know when your child may have a "moment". There is so much brewing inside their heads how can we ever dismiss the possibility that more will find its way out?
