“Jojo thirsty.”
I have to take a moment to reflect on our progress for the times when I feel we have plateaued or regressed.
I like to report the progress we are having, but if I am being honest, it’s not always “sunshine and rainbows.”
Because sometimes we hit a wall. Whatever the reason. Maybe he’s tired. Maybe he’s needing food. Maybe somethings going on at school.
Words he knows, he will no-longer say. Shapes, he will no-longer identify.
He no-longer likes taking baths and you have to fight him to even set foot in the bathtub…. again. We had made so much progress on that front…
That is by and large the HARDEST part of autism.
Regression sucks.
What makes it worse is when there are communication difficulties and you don’t know the underlying cause.
In these moments I have to force myself to focus on the positives. We are still leaps and bounds ahead of where we were a year ago.
I used to have to fight with him to stay in his room at bedtime. I used to sit in front of the door blocking his exit, many times while he screamed about it.
But tonight, he just said “Jojo thirsty,” climbed out of bed, got himself a drink, and walked right back to his room and got into bed.
With autism, you have to take the bad with the good…
Sometimes, it may seem like there is nothing “good” to be found…
I have learned that in those situations, you just need to dig a little deeper to find it.