I peed the bed last night
"I peed the bed last night."
Now why should those words make me happy and hopeful? For several reasons.
The overarching reason is they came from Nathan.
Nathan who says few words anyway, and when he uses them they often seem like a stim--something he repeats to himself for self-entertainment purposes only. These would be unusual stim words for him. A quick sniff of his dry pants told me they were not idle words.
Nathan who rarely talks about present events and almost never about past events. I think I could count on one hand how many times he has talked about a past event. The past and future are topics hard to grasp for most people with autism.
Even though he said them in the bathroom and I was outside the room, they were meant to communicate an idea to me. Something had happened to him. When I had sent him back into his room at 4am(without checking, although I admit I did try to make him pee--I cop an excuse of sleep deprivation after only 4 hours of sleep,) something important had happened to him that I should know about.
So even though it was 8 hours after the event, he was communicating. Communication, now that's something to celebrate!
Now why should those words make me happy and hopeful? For several reasons.
The overarching reason is they came from Nathan.
Nathan who says few words anyway, and when he uses them they often seem like a stim--something he repeats to himself for self-entertainment purposes only. These would be unusual stim words for him. A quick sniff of his dry pants told me they were not idle words.
Nathan who rarely talks about present events and almost never about past events. I think I could count on one hand how many times he has talked about a past event. The past and future are topics hard to grasp for most people with autism.
Even though he said them in the bathroom and I was outside the room, they were meant to communicate an idea to me. Something had happened to him. When I had sent him back into his room at 4am(without checking, although I admit I did try to make him pee--I cop an excuse of sleep deprivation after only 4 hours of sleep,) something important had happened to him that I should know about.
So even though it was 8 hours after the event, he was communicating. Communication, now that's something to celebrate!
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