Dedication

In our experince, the good of people goes unnoticed. I am so guilty of focusing on a problem to the detriment of providing praise or noticing the positive.

For Little Bug, this week has been an amazing week. He has gotten a lot better about the change in the house due to moving. He has helped us pack some things and was really excited as I cut out sharks made of chalkboard stickers for his room. (A note on that, we are stacking the deck in our favor- we have a Nemo poster, a shark sign, and a shark drawing for his new room. It can't hurt :) )

He has also suddenly blossomed in speech. Two weeks ago, if you had asked me about his language skills, I would have stated that he lacks sponatneous speech without prompting, cannot answer a yes or no question, and also generally uses 1 to 2 words at a time.

Starting on Sunday, yes and no are easy. If you ask him "Do you want goldfish?" He will say "Goldfish... yes" and sign yes. He always repeats a portion of the question- not sure if it is echolalia or just his way of processing- but he is answering.

Yesterday during therapy, he busted out a five word sentence- I WANT MY TURN PLEASE!!! These were accompanied by sign for emphasis and yelling for sheer excitement. His therapist was flabbergasted.

Recently, Nick and I have felt like we are slacking off and not working enough with him as we have been busy getting things ready for the move and also worrying about his lump. Apparently, we have hit our stride for him.

I want to leave you with a positive article I found on yahoo.com:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20090324/od_afp/thailandchildrenoffbeat


BANGKOK (AFP) – A Thai fireman turned superhero when he dressed up as comic-book character Spider-Man to coax a frightened eight-year-old from a balcony, police said Tuesday.

Teachers at a special needs school in Bangkok alerted authorities on Monday when an autistic pupil, scared of attending his first day at school, sat out on the third-floor ledge and refused to come inside, a police sergeant told AFP.

Despite teachers' efforts to beckon the boy inside, he refused to budge until his mother mentioned her son's love of superheroes, prompting fireman Sonchai Yoosabai to take a novel approach to the problem.

The rescuer dashed back to his fire station and made a quick change into a Spider-Man costume before returning to the boy, he said.

"I told him Spider-Man is here to rescue you, no monsters are going to attack you and I told him to walk slowly towards me as running could be dangerous," Somchai told local television.

The young boy immediately stood up and walked into his rescuer's arms, police said.

Somchai said he keeps the Spider-Man costume and an outfit of Japanese television character Ultraman at the station in order to liven up school fire drills.