Random Thoughts

The topic for the "Special Needs Blog Hop" is "random thoughts" and it would seem so many of my thoughts are random these days that it is hard to choose. I have been thinking, however randomly, about the interesting dichotomy that autism has created in David. His great difficulty in communicating makes him extremely dependent. Although he is increasingly able to make his needs and wants known and recently has even begun to make unsolicited comments, he still is extremely reliant on us to communicate for him especially when we are out in public.

The interesting contradiction, however, is that David's difficulty in communicating, the very same issue that causes him to rely so heavily on us, has also made him exceptionally independent in other areas. Because of the late development of his language, he has become a pretty clever and enterprising young boy, a problem solver in his own right. He continually amazes me with his ability to assess a situation and often develop his own solution rather than asking for help, which would be considerably more difficult for him.

For example, David recently finished eating a piece of cinnamon toast—you know, the kind Mom used to make you with butter and cinnamon sugar melted on the toast, but made considerably more healthy, I am sure, by swapping the butter with Brummel and Brown—and I could tell he was not happy by the amount of cinnamon sugar still left on the plate when he had finished eating the toast. I watched him consider the situation for a brief moment before he raised the plate to his face and started to blow all of the sugar into a pile against the far lip of the plate, essentially a human leaf blower, making it much easier to lick the leftover cinnamon sugar. That's my boy!