Time passes so quickly. Before you know it, summer is gone and it's almost Thanksgiving.
I've been really blessed the last few months to watch as my son's communciation skills have increased. It's become obvious that he's making a greater effort to communicate, stringing words together in short sentences, trying to make himself understood. Just two years ago, his inability to speak to us would cause him to dissolve into a screaming fit. Now, he finds unique ways to describe what he wants to convey. For example, church clothes are "Jesus clothes".
I think of where this all used to be. There was a time when I would wake up and think, I really can't handle this child. I don't know why God gave him to me. I love him, but he drives me crazy. I am so frustrated, because I can't get through to him, and I know he needs things that he cannot tell me. Now those days are few and far between. It takes patience, and knowing that the situation you are in is only temporary. Someday, the things you hoped to see, the things you longed for, do really come to pass.
I also think of how often children and adults like Logan are misunderstood. A lot of people assume that just because someone cannot speak, or cannot speak well, then they must be mentally deficient. This applies to people who don't speak English, also. We assume that if someone doesn't communicate the way that we do, then something must be terribly wrong. More often than not, I have seen people automatically switch to a louder, slower voice, as if this will automatically make the person understand English, or make them able to magically speak. It's an ignorant reaction that a lot of people have, and an ignorant assumption, that muteness, or slow speaking, must equal a mute or slow intellect. I cannot speak for all people, but in my son's case, at least, nothing could be further from the truth.
Logan's speech is probably at the level of an late three or early four year old. Some days it's not even that. BUT. His compehension is probably more on the level of a ten or eleven year old. He understands every single thing that is said to him. I can give him a complex set of instructions and he will follow them. He is extremely observant. He will watch me to do something-once-then repeat it. He could make scrambled eggs if only he knew where I keep the oven knobs.
I am thankful for my son, and his very unique spirit. I feel blessed to have him...and it's my wish that parents of autistic children everywhere stop, and realize that the hard times often give way to easier times, and that those easier times bear delightful surprises.
