Wordless Wednesday: Handwriting/Coloring Progress!

photo taken by The Husband March 2012 @ Riverside Park 

photo taken w/ iPhone April 2012 @ my office

I'll be in Miami for the rest of the week but have 3 Through The Looking Glass Guest posts lined up!  

the LITTLE things are a BIG deal [#1]

I wanted to kick off my first blog post of 2012 with something special: my very own blog meme.  For more information click HERE.  Please note, you do not have to be a special needs parent to link up.  AutismWonderland is a community.  And I want to celebrate your every day wonderful moments with you.

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The Boy runs to me, iPad clutched in both hands.  He is smiling.  It's a dimpled smile, baby teeth showing.  And his eyes are bright and blinking rapidly with excitement. I know he's done something that he wants to show me.  

But still I remind him to walk.  And then I bring him back to where he started from, asking him to walk to me.  I know he wants to run.  But he walks, one foot in front of the other, across the room to where I am.  The way he is walking, I can tell he's telling himself to walk, walk, walk; walk, walk, walk.  The Boy is still smiling.  Looking down at the iPad and then back at me.  His arms and shoulders are wiggly.

"Look Mommy."  He shoves the iPad in my face, almost too close for me to see.  It's just a blur of colors.  And I have to hold it out.

The Boy stands in front of me.  Still smiling.  Body still twitching and wiggling.  He's waiting for me to say it. 

"Wow!  This is great!  Good Job."  I hold up my hand, and The Boy slaps me five.

What's the big deal about this picture?  Not only did The Boy color within the lines but he was proud to show me that he did a good job. 

The Boy has been doing a lot of coloring and drawing lately.  He wants to do it.  He will sit still and focus and really concentrate to stay in the lines.  Some days are harder than others.  But he's getting so much better.   Every day, with every he gets so much better.

And there was a time, not so long ago, when The Boy couldn't hold a crayon at all.  And I had to sit with him, my hand over his.  He used to cry and switch hands.  Because he lacked the hand strength to hold a crayon or pencil for more than a few minutes.  And when he learned to hold the crayon, he was looking everywhere else except the piece of paper.

Handwriting and coloring is still difficult for The Boy.  We still struggle through our homework.  But his interest is improving.  He asks to color and write and erase.  He wants to cut out pictures he's colored and loves to show off his work.   And he feels good when I praise him.  And when he feels good, I feel good. 

But the best thing and biggest deal about this picture is that it shows how hard he tries.

Walking Up The Down Escalator

Summer 2011

Last night while doing homework with The Boy, I watched as he struggled coloring within the lines. Writing his name.  Tracing the letters.  His hand shook as he gripped the crayon.  The crayon that I broke in half to help with his grip.  (note to self: DO NOT break crayons in front of The Boy. It leads to 5 minutes of "We have to fix it.  We need scotch tape.") The Boy needed a bit of redirection and every so often I needed to put my hand over his.



Fall 2011



I stare at the scrawl of his six letter name and I'm glad he doesn't have to write out his last. As much as The Boy loves spelling and letters and building words with his blocks - writing is an exhausting task.  It's not laziness, it's hard.  Physically and mentally exhausting.  It requires hand strength he doesn't quite have. Motor planning and concentration.

For me it requires a lot of redirection.  And even more patience. 

Why does The Boy have difficulty concentrating to write his own name, but has the patience to spell out If you give a moose a muffin?  It's a question, I know he cannot answer.  At least not now. 

There was a time when The Boy couldn't point his finger. 
There was a time when The Boy couldn't jump.
There was a time when The Boy couldn't speak.

The Boy does all of these things now.  So I have to remind myself not to worry too much about his handwriting or the coloring within the lines.    

When I got off the D train at Columbus Circle this morning, I glanced over at the escalators.
The up escalator was too crowded, The down escalator, empty.  I was almost tempted to run up the down escalator, instead I ran up the subway steps.   

I don't know why, but at that moment I thought of The Boy and his learning process.  Some children can just get by as easily as standing on the escalator.  Others, have to work at it by running up the stairs.  Learning for The Boy, is like walking up the down escalator.  It's difficult, there are moments when you feel like you're just never moving forward. Getting to the top will take much longer, but it can be done. 

The Boy never stops moving.  Eventually he'll make it to the top.  And every day he's one step closer to getting there.