Coping with Autism

Peter has picked up on his use of words again. He's requesting things more and using words more frequently to describe things. I think his speech regression was tied to how much time he spent on the computer. Now that we've curbed his obsession with the machine, he seems to be returning to "normal." Nathan has started mimicking more and that bothers me some. It could be that he's just playing with speech and is repeating what is said to him. OR it could be that he's beginning to do what Peter does. I believe he's just playing around with speech and sounds but it's hard not to worry. Potty-training is taking off. Of course, I have to harp at the boys about it. They don't usually remember on their own. We may actually have both boys trained by the time kindergarten starts. I hope. At least I think so. . .

We spent our weekend at my in-laws in New Jersey (and I apologize for not posting--my father-in-law's computer wasn't cooperative). My niece is also on the autism spectrum so it's always interesting to compare notes with my sister-in-law. My niece, "B," is between my boys' ages so as Peter leads us into new territory, we compare Nathan and B to what Peter has done or is doing. On another topic, Peter is (finally) potty-training which you will discover, if you haven't already, is a big deal. I know one mom (also with two boys on the spectrum) whose oldest at 10 is still not potty-trained so this has been a big leap forward for us.