I saw the sign!

There are times, with an autistic child, that all the daily trudging up and up some uncharted mountain pays off. Days when an unexpected rainbow surrounds the summit. Days when you know it was worth it to take the hard way up. Today was one of those days. And let me first say that today's particular summit was reached with significant help from my fabulous S.T.E.P.S therapists. (Our current in-home IBI providers, Ashley, Jenn, Natalie, Shawna, Deanna and Laura)

To appreciate this particular summit, to feel the exhilaration and to know the profound sense of achievement I need to explain the journey. I promise it will not be the documentary version...a quick pan through the last few years will do the trick. Scene begins in a living room, with a little blond, curly headed Scarlet screaming and thrashing, banging her head. No one knows why, there is little to do but wait out the tantrum and hope that it ends soon. I try to only respond or give Scarlet what she wants if she is attempting some sort of verbal sound. I can not keep up to the demand that this method takes and give up trying. A year later, same little cutie, just taller pulling out her hair in frustration. She is far removed from her world. It is my full time job just to engage her, to keep her in touch with her reality instead of pulling out her hair and looking out of the window. Therapists come to our house and try to teach her to communicate what she needs by pulling pictures off a page and handing them to me. I know Scarlet is capable of more than this, but they tell me this is the only option. Several months later, Scarlet is requesting familiar food items using the pictures at nursery school and the Achimota center, but finds it hard to incorporate into daily life at home.

Several months later, we feel a change in Scarlet's therapy is needed. We pray. God sends three different people to us with the name of S.T.E.P.S. We love the positive attitudes of Deanna and Laura the ladies who run S.T.E.P.S. We love that they can see a side of Scarlet that few can. We know they are a good fit. They send their therapists Shawna, Natalie, Jenn, and Ashley to our house every day for months. They teach Scarlet her first signs eat and drink, then bread. These signs are repeated several times a day with prompts like: show me eat, show me drink, or what do you want? Scarlet then responds with the appropriate signs. When Scarlet starts to sign the first time for eat all by herself we are at the grocery store in the produce section.... It was the first time since Scarlet lost her words that she had been able to communicate her thoughts to me. Three years of silence, then an "eat" sign....wait that was a summit but there is a bigger one coming.

Tonight at the dinner table, Scarlet was furious. She was kicking and crying and banging her head and refusing to eat anything but green beans. She was spitting out everything that I tried to feed her. She clearly had a strong aversion to supper. Once I realized that she was trying to communicate that she didn't like what we were having to eat, I calmed her down and told her that I would make her a sandwich. I took supper, ground it up and added mayonnaise then put it in her bread for a sandwich. She loved her sandwich and gobbled up three helpings. I had run out of bread, so I didn't give her any more. I figured she was done. That is when Scarlet came up to me slapped her hands together in her "bread" sign and SAID "Bread". I screamed and jumped and make all kinds of ruckus. She jumped up and down and squealed with delight that I had understood her. We had a celebration!!! A fresh, mountain air, lofty mountain peak, It-was- worth-every-step-of-the-climb kind of celebration. I think I even yodeled!

"Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows." James 1:17

Thank you, Jesus