Initiating Communication

One of the characteristics of Autism is the difficulty in social interaction. A constant challenge for Dominic is initiating communication from others. He still has difficulty with the back and forth of a conversation.  I love when the hubby comes home from work and I hear Dominic spontaneously say, "hello, daddy!" It's a HUGE thing that he does that.  For the past couple of days, Dominic has been initiating communication from me.  Even though he is way past the age an almost 9-year old would want to play with a baby toy, Dominic really loves this set of Fisher Price rings:

What he's been doing, is to put the blue one on the bottom and then he'll take the very top one and put that one on next, even though he knows that's not right.  He'll then look at me and wait for me to say or do something.  I say, "no, no, no, that doesn't go there!" and he'll start laughing like it's the absolute funniest thing he has even heard.  It is very cool, first of all to hear him laugh so hard, but more importantly, he is looking for a response from me!  Sometimes, I wish he communicated more (like, so he could tell us why he is so terrified of bugs), but I thank my lucky stars all the time for how much progress he has made. For parents who have children that can't communicate at all, I can somewhat relate. The first three years of Dominic's life he was in his own world quite often and didn't "let us in" except for very brief moments.  It was really, really hard, especially with someone with as big of a mouth as I have.  Just as I was finishing writing this post he said, "hello, mommy!" as he ran into the other room.  I told him hi back.  If you have children that communicate with you freely, be grateful and don't take it for granted, not even for a minute!