"When one door of happiness closes, another opens;
but often we look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one which has opened for us."
Helen Keller

Saturday, March 26, 2011

Brycen & his Froggy

Froggy has been in Brycen's life since he was born. He was a gift from his Aunt Brenda and has always had a place in Brycen's crib/bed for the past 4 1/2 years. Surprisingly, Froggy is in fabulous condition!

I've been using Froggy recently in our night-time ritual of teaching Brycen how to say/gesture "I love you." He has been giving Froggy kisses (huge step because until a few months ago, the blowing kisses had been lost) and hugging him each night. I then start by saying "I" pointing to my chest, and then Brycen points to his chest with no noises typically in imitation. Most of the time, Brycen will then take over and pat his chest for "love" while making a noise, and then points at me saying "ooo." In the beginning, I used Froggy as my model for pointing to his chest and so on. It took Brycen about 2 months, but now he will do all of this with the prompt of me saying "I" about 80% of the time.
If you have a child that can't say "I love you" then you know what a huge feat this is and how much it means! We take so much for granted in life and this (along with waiting for the day for him to say "mama" again) has been something I have been wanting for so long and was not sure when the time would come! I'm so happy the time is here:)

Now, back to Mr. Froggy! Every once in awhile, Brycen will become obsessive with Froggy and insist on bringing him downstairs to "play" and will then resort to just throwing him everywhere. This ends up with me taking Froggy away and Brycen becoming upset.
I was very surprised to find Brycen playing "appropriately" with Froggy this morning while I was doing stuff in the kitchen! I don't leave the kids alone together due to Brycen's aggressive tendencies (and Aubree's attempts to encourage his aggression), so I am rarely in the kitchen for more than a couple minutes and can see them through the dining room at all times. Anyway, here are a few shots I was able to take quickly before Brycen realized I was taking his picture of him playing with Froggy. It wasn't completely appropriate for his age range, but it was far better and more structured of play than his usual throwing him around!

I LOVE this last picture of him and Froggy walking! I'm not sure where this came from but it's definitely imaginative play and it was AMAZING to see!
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Autism and Our Family

"Autism"----It's one word that can change the life of a child and family in so many ways. Autism Spectrum Disorders are being diagnosed at a rate of 1 in 68 children currently. If you do not already know someone that has been diagnosed, the statistics say it won't be long before you do.

Our son developed typically until around the time he turned 2 years old. We heard words...we saw him play with other kids...we watched as he played with his toys appropriately...we made eye contact with him...overall we understood his wants and needs. In a matter of a few months, that was all taken away from him. He began lining up toys, lost all of his words and signs except for one word "ball", ignored other kids, could not sleep through the night, lost eye contact and the ability to follow directions, and he had no way of letting us know what he wanted or how he felt. It was heartbreaking to see something happening to our child that we couldn't stop!

Brycen began receiving home therapy 1-2 times per month for about 6 months before we realized it wasn't just developmental delays. We knew it was Autism...we just didn't want to say it outloud to anyone. He was officially diagnosed with Autism (classic form and regressive), as well as Mental Retardation in August 2009 by the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics.

We continue to learn as we make our way through this journey with Brycen and we will continue to share this journey with you on this blog! The blog has been a great therapy for us to be able to vent our frustrations and struggles with accepting that we have a child with special needs, while sharing how blessed we are to have a child teach us what life truly means. It has also been a great way to inform others of his progress and changes over the last couple of years.

Thank you for your support of Brycen and our family! We hope you are able to learn something through this blog no matter if you are a parent of a child with special needs or a neurotypical child, a teacher or therapist, a family member, or just someone that is interested in the journey that a family goes on as they learn their child is battling a life-long disorder.