Sunday, March 27, 2011

I love Autism Breakthrough Days

As I took the boys to Toys R Us to get out of the rain, and use some of their Birthday gift cards, something so awe inspiring happened for us as a family I was brought to grateful tears on the way home.

My two year Jackson fell asleep in the stroller as we were wandering the aisles.  Franklin was a bit antsy and wanted out of the stroller.   So I thought I would try something.    I got down on my knees and looked Franklin right in the eye, and made sure he was looking back at me.

I told him "Franklin you can pick one toy to take home with us".

We were in a section of the store of the kinds of toys that he likes, and he looked and touched a few of the toys that he recognized.  Backyardigans, GeoTrax, Toy Story, Puzzles, and Thomas the Train.  As I watched him I felt like I was watching his brain work.  He wasn't that interested in those, and then we came upon the MOTHERLODE!!  There is an Animal Planet section in Toys R Us now.  He LOVES animals.  He looked at several boxes of animal toys, and came upon a Farm Yard with 20 animals, a tractor and a farmer.  He made some of his Autism language, and flapped his arms in excitement.  Then, he pulled the HUGE box off of the shelf and said "I Want", and handed it to me.    This child does not talk, we get a word every few weeks, rarely two together.

This was so huge today.  He receptively understood a single instruction, and followed it appropriately, made his choice and communicated it to me.   It was like he was out of the Autism bubble for a minute and completely knew what we were there for and what was happening.    He has always had challenges with receptive instruction in therapy session and they have been working on it for months and he is just mastering some of the receptive drills that he works with daily.    But this was out of a therapy or classroom, this was a real life everyday thing that regular kids do all the time.  He got what we were there for and went through the toys, picked what he wanted and told me that he wanted it!

I was able to drive home safely through my tears of joy!    Thank you Animal Planet and Toys R Us for marketing and displaying something that my little guy LOVES.

This is something that Bravo just doesn't have the cajones to broadcast, those Real Housewives don't have anything on me :)

Earlier this week he had me cleaning up poop murals, today he's making huge strides.  The roller coaster is never ending in our house!

The Happiest Mommy on earth today!

Rebecca

2 comments:

  1. That was a very beautiful and warming story. I have two boys, well 18 and 14 both over 6'2" hardly "boys" anymore. But oh how I miss taking them to Toy's R Us! My oldest son was diagnosed with Osteosarcoma (bone cancer)at 17, last Feb and we spent almost a year at Children's Hospital. When he was little, he loved sleeping with me, even all the way to 12! As he got older and bigger, he would still hug me of course and tell me "I love you too" when I would first tell him. But when we found out about the cancer, that night he asked me to sleep in his room for comfort; told me he was scared but knew he would be healed, asked me to pray for him and told me "I love you mom", without me telling him first. We spent the next year in and out of the hospital and I "Got" to take care of him again; and even though It was due to the illness, I loved every single moment with him. We have these moments of time with our children. God entrusted us to take care of them and I pray everyday I am doing "My Job" well. Thank you again for sharing your story, it truly touched my heart.

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