Oh boy!
I do know that our family life has changed for the better. We are more accepting of our situation and we tend to have a positive outlook. In fact, life is pretty amazing, regardless of the fact that we have a severely autistic teenager.
And this young man of ours just continues to progress. Isn't that great? He is 13 and still continues to make progress.
My latest facebook status: "A little update on Nick's vocab.... He is trying so hard to verbalise what is going on around him. He sounds out the letters of familiar short words and he has progressed from saying individual letters (i.e.) c.a.r. to blending the sounds.... c.ar. Exciting stuff."
Over the years I have watched Nick progress; and then plateau for a long period of time. We have had times where he has been unhappy or highly anxious or switched off. This was a fairly consistent pattern until I began to really focus on RDI, roughly two years ago. I can now say without a doubt, that for the last two years, Nick has continued to move steadily forward, step by step.
Our RDI journey continues to be a learning experience for the both of us. A big part of Nick's improvement is the fact that I have been learning how to guide him effectively. I know that it seems kind of crazy... being guided on how to parent! However, it really is beneficial and I definitely need help with the fine tuning!
I want to share two video clips. The first clip (two minutes) is from around early 2011 and the second clip (four minutes) was taken in October 2012. In order to keep this post short and sweet, I am going to let you, the reader......
Spot the difference!
Early 2011
October 2012
So, what do you think?
That biggie still weighs on my mind, however, (yes, I know this is very corny and I am sure the line comes from a movie!) we are working towards a better future....
~ * ~
