After a month of highs, tons of communication, responsiveness, and making verbal requests, once again words are gone. This pattern is typical, for two weeks, we’re thrilled to hear new words fall from his lips, then for the next two weeks, we’ll wonder where they went.
He woke up on Thursday and couldn’t seem to get anything meaningful out of his mouth. I mean he’s still moving his mouth to babble, sing, and echo lines from his fav. videos, but when it comes to meaningful speech, like asking for something to eat (even the favored tortilla chips), I get….nothing. He looks at me. I bend my knees to be at eye level and ask, palms up, “What do you want?” He jumps up and down, eyes flick up to the cupboard, then he turns around and leaves the kitchen. Hmmm…I know he’s hungry, but I also know sticking to our rule, “Nothing is for free anymore” has been motivating enough to pull speech from his reluctant lips. He has to ask me some way, one word, one sign, at least a pointed finger.
I turn back to the stove to put the kettle on and sure enough, Jackson’s back tugging on my arm, pulling me back toward the cereal cupboard. Again, knees bent, I repeat, “What do you want?” He looks at me carefully this time, turns his body to face the same way I am, and bends his knees to match mine. I think, Do you think this is what I want? Is this your way of requesting when you can’t find your words or get them out? Or is part of Gestalt processing…you’ve added meaning to bent knees as a part of requests, when I’m just trying to encourage communication? I point to my chest to prompt, “I want.” Wait time…. I’m mentally counting 19 when Jackson impatiently grabs my hand and pulls it up toward the cupboard. I say, “You want cheerios?” signing cereal. Jackson’s eyes snap from the cupboard to my hand, and he quickly responds with the sign.” Wait…10 more seconds…Is this good enough effort for today? A weak “cereal” barely escapes his lips, and I reward with a quick, “Okay! You want cheerios!” and quickly pour some into a bowl.
We can drag out a word or two, but no phrases, and the few spoken words seem to require an enormous amount of concentration to form. What’s going on here? I’ve just recognized a strange pattern that seems to be more than coincidence: The first day his words disappear, he will have excessive bowel movements (3-5), and these will continue until his words return. It seems to me, something is flaring up regularly, and just like we feel when we’re sick (not at the top of our game, fuzzy thinking, etc.), Jackson apparently struggles to find his words or figure out how to get them out. I’d love to hear from someone on this. There’s got to be a connection.
The good thing is, Jackson will still use signs, or we can at least prompt him physically to request using signs. I can’t physically make his mouth form words, but I can make his hands form signs. Signs seem to stick with him better than words even during these “down swings.” So we still hold fast to one of our greatest communication motivators, “Nothing is for free.”