Losing Patience

Interestingly enough, I have reached a point now in which I talk to Jonathan the same way as I talk to Vanessa, and I forget about his disability at times and that has frustrated me a bit the past 3 days because I expect him to behave in a way that he is not quite ready for just yet.

Jonathan played with our friends' kids all weekend. On Saturday, they spent a good 3 hours together, but then we went over to their house on Sunday, and they played for almost 5 hours. I was shocked that Jonathan could keep up with them, their inventions, conversations, etc.

We have gotten to a point now where I can be watching TV and Jonathan asks for more apple juice, and without changing my way of speaking and without looking at him, I just say "Jonathan, take the cup to your daddy and ask him to give you more apple juice" and he does that. I am talking to him like he has no autism and 2 out of 3 times he gets everything that I say.

So my frustration now comes because he is very "hyper" for my patience; he doesn't know how to regulate his tone so he screams when he talks; and he doesn't know how to keep his distance from strangers, so at starbucks he gets to close to the person in front of us and people lose patience; and he doesn't always obey me, he hears what I say but won't do what I asked, etc. It is amazing that these are now my frustrations. I shouldn't even be frustrated. I am just sort of over my amazement that Jonathan can now speak better and understand language at a 4 year old or so level, and his behavior is now "normal" to me but it really isn't. I know I may not be making much sense right now, but at the same time it has given me something new to focus on.

His conversational language has really improved. We went to visit a friend today, and there was a 6 year old child in the house and he immediately joined that child and asked him what he was doing, etc. He is having trouble focusing because he is having spacial problems. He is constantly moving. I know that HBOT might help with it some, but I know this is more central nervous system problems, ear problems, etc. I am strongly considering the neurofeedback therapy for next year because Jonathan is definitely going to be one of those children on the spectrum that as they start recovering, they move within the spectrum from autism to ADHD to ADD to hopefully full recovery. We definitely still have a long road and I need to learn to be more patient.