Ella did something new tonight!
While she was hopping up and down (that is one of her favorite “happy” activities), she accidentally banged her chin/mouth on something. (That’s not the part I’m happy about!)
When she did this, I was very near her, but looking down at something and I know she didn’t realize that I saw it happen out of the corner of my eye.
She winced in pain a bit (Thank God she now has some reactions to pain on the GFCF diet!). And I said to her, “Oh Baby, did you hurt your mouth?”
And you know what she did?
She went back to where she did it, and SHOWED ME. She basically reenacted it. Instead of jumping up and down, she lifted her head up and down, up and down, and touched her chin on it carefully – showing me precisely how she had hit it. She did it like 3 times!
I am really excited/encouraged by this.
Yes, I knew what she had done, because I’d seen it from the corner of my vision. But she didn’t know that, and she made an effort to communicate with me and show me what she had done.
She even looked at me when she reenacted twice, as if she was saying, “See, see this is what I did.” I told her I understood that she had bumped her mouth while jumping. She looked at me like “Yeah” and then she showed me again, and I said, “Yes, baby, I see. I’m so sorry you hurt yourself. You will have to be more careful while jumping.” And with that she acted as if she understood that I understood and all was well.
Granted all of this was non-verbal communication. But I’ll gratefully take whatever I can get. You have no idea how valuable a little interaction like that with your child is, unless you’ve had a child that cannot do those things. Then the tiniest little things mean so much.
Sounds like a good thing, not that she hit her little chin, but explaining it to you…WOW.
That’s great! Definite progress. I’m excited now too!
Hi Deb,
So nice to visit this blog and find such a heart-warming story! I’m very happy you had this communication with your little girl.
I wanted to give you a link to Dr. Walsh’s website. I only just found out about his work, as our holistic practitioner wants to try a different route of treatment for my son, after the past four months have not produced the results we’d like to see. He’s going to try and get my son’s psychiatrist on board with ordering some of the tests, hoping insurance will pay.
I don’t understand all that Dr. Walsh is talking about, but am learning some and kept thinking of you and your daughter while reading from his site.
I’ll copy and paste a URL for you. Hope it doesn’t go to spam.
Big hugs to you, and again, I am so happy to have read this story!
(http://www.walshinstitute.org/Video/FeaturedVideo.asp?var=http://www.youtube.com/v/2OSXPZ4mma8?version=3&hl=en_US&rel=0&var2=Dr%20Bill%20Walsh%20On%20Mercury%20in%20Autistics%20at%20Outreach%202010)
Wow, that was a long one, here is the main site:
http://www.walshinstitute.org/MedicalConditions.asp