Autism really is a big spectrum. Every person who has autism are completely different from the next. When you’ve met one person with autism, then you’ve met one person with autism. There’s so many different ways that autism affects people. I remember the first time I really understood what autism was for my son Nicholas.

Nicholas is non-verbal, meaning he doesn’t communicate with words. Instead, he communicates with facial expressions, with our hands, and with sign language. I always thought that because he couldn’t communicate with words that meant he didn’t understand what we were saying. But that’s not true at all.

Nicholas’s receptive language is really strong. He understands what we are saying to him. It was about 8 months ago when I discovered this after asking him if he wanted to walk in his walker. Even though I didn’t think he ever understood what I was saying, I would still talk with him hoping he was still taking in everything. After I asked him that question he scooted over to me and pushed my feet toward his walker. I was amazed. I’d never seen him do anything like that before. It was in that moment that I realized he understands so much of what we’re saying, he just can’t communicate back to us his needs with words, which is exactly what his autism is.

Before this occurred, Nicholas was only communicating with our hands by bringing them to whatever he needed. He will push my hand down to his pants showing me that he needs them to be rolled up. Or he’ll push my hand toward the tissues when he needs to wipe his nose. One of my favorite moments is when he brought my hand over to his g-tube button showing me that he was full and wanted to stop eating. That was really exciting for me because it took us so long to get him to communicate that. It’s so important because of his history of vomiting that he can tell us when he’s full.

He will also answer our questions with facial expressions. He smiles for “yes” or whines for “no.” While this isn’t the most effective way of communicating or a long-term solution, it works for right now. And it’s cool that he understands what we are saying to him.

Nicholas is also saying “hi” which is super exciting! It’s very intentional and he understands when to say it. When I walk into the room, he makes eye contact with me and says “hi” to me. Even if I’m not paying attention to him, he still greets me to get my attention.

Because his receptive language is so good we are taking advantage of that in therapy. We are really emphasizing and elongating the words “more” and “up.” Nicholas hits the table for “more” and can make the “m” sound. We hope that he will start pairing these together so that he can say a verbal cue along with hitting the table.

This is a really exciting time for Nicholas. He’s communicating more every day and understands so much of what we’re saying to him. I’ve learned that just because he’s non-verbal doesn’t mean he doesn’t know what we’re saying to him. He’s incredibly smart and wants to communicate with us.

Welcome to Voices of Special Needs Blog Hop — a monthly gathering of posts from special needs bloggers hosted by The Sensory Spectrum and Mommy Evolution. Click on the links below to read stories from other bloggers about having a special needs kiddo — from Sensory Processing Disorder to ADHD, from Autism to Dyslexia! 
Want to join in on next month’s Voices of Special Needs Hop? Click here!