"Uh oh..."

Hello and welcome! Today (August 11, 2014) I started working with Mark to learn supported typing. I have been wanting to start this for some time. I had read Tito Mukhopadhyay's book Beyond the Silence: My Life, The World and Autism (2000) years ago.  It describes how a nonverbal child in India learned to type for communication from his mother.  Then, a couple of years ago, the movie Wretches and Jabberers came out.  Again, I was thinking that I would like to try this type of communication for my son, Mark.  A couple of weeks ago, I attended the Summer Institute at the Institute on Communication and Inclusion at Syracuse, New York.  I got to attend workshops and presentations on facilitated communication.  I kept looking for a "curriculum" or some instructions on how to get started.  They said you just have to practice, practice, practice...so, we are going to start this journey and see where it leads us!

Before I post our session for today, I want to make note of something that happened this morning.  If you don't know my son, Mark, he has limited speech and can repeat many things and make simple requests for things that he enjoys i.e. juice, cheetos, pizza, swimming, tickle, bike ride, go for a walk....  Well, this morning, we have to go to the doctor's office for a blood draw.  We usually only have to do this about once a year.  Before we go, I make sure that Dr. Gordon is available.  Right now, Mark is 13 years old and 6 foot and 180 pounds.  Dr. Gordon is probably about 6 foot 4 inches and weighs close to 250 pounds.  He is the "biggest" doctor at the office and so we ask him to help "hold" Mark's arms so the nurse can get the draw.  Well, we were waiting in the room and when the doctor came in, Mark says, "Uh oh".  I tried so hard not to laugh but I was so happy because I knew that Mark knew what was going to happen....I have to honestly say that I think this is one of the first times that I have heard Mark spontaneously respond to a situation with appropriate verbage!  I was so excited!!!  Furthermore, the blood draw went fine and Mark even watched the whole thing and moved very little!  Success and success!!!

Okay, I am not a videographer and we definitely have to get some better equipment to work with but I want to post these videos to show our progress on this reMARKable communication journey...