In the Beginning

Writing my 100th post today (please, hold 
the applause) puts me in a reflective mood
about how my young reader began.
I read to my boy from the start. Even before the
start actually, since I read aloud to him when I
was pregnant. I remember reading But Not the 
Hippopotamus to him when he was two weeks
old. He eventually grew tired of that one, 
though I never did.
My son, like many children, 
showed no signs of autism (unless you count
precocity) until he was about 18 months old. 
Here's what I wrote about his reading just before 
the time he started losing words and gestures:

1/5/2002 (1 year, 6 months) He refers to most of his books by title 

"Find the Teddy" & "Baby Frens" 

for instance, and can 'read' parts of them to us. 

1/8/2002 My boy used to "read" his books aloud like this 

"abeba da dee do." 

Now he reads them like this 

"I see airplane. I see frog. I see fren."

He enjoyed reading to us then and had no

problems with focus. We're long past 

declarative fully illustrated sentences now.

He would rather ponder page minutiae that

I don't even notice than read with me and

rarely makes the expected connections.

But he still loves books.

I think we can do that for all our kids,

non-verbal or hyperlexic, read with

them early and give them a love of

books. 

If you have a book-resistant kid,

write in-we need to share our stories

in every sense of the word.

Okay, you can applaud now,

prompting another 100 posts. 

Or better yet, comment.

-Spectrum Mom