My 23 Month Old Autist Knows His Letters

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Just for kicks the other day, I asked my son to find the letter G on his computer. He pointed right to it and pressed the button. I thought, wow, coincidence? So I continued asking for letters of his name. He found each and every letter, first try, no hesitation. I almost fell over! Now, I knew he could play his phonics game where the computer shows you a letter and you press the corresponding key to drop the letter in the bucket (catching all the letters) without making a single error. While that was still pretty amazing, it could be chalked up to matching pairs. This, however, is proof that the kiddo really does know his entire alphabet. At 23 months!!? This is just incredible to me, and fills me with so much hope and happiness.

On yet another very positive note, the Baby Signing Time DVD has arrived and within two days of having it both of my children learned and began using the signs! I've already ordered Volume 2 and placed many others on his Wish List for the holidays and his birthday. Instead of throwing screaming fits now, he will sign for "eat" or "milk" or "done", though sometimes "done" is hard to distinguish from his flapping. He also signs mom, dad, cat, candy, thank you and, occasionally, please. I can hardly wait for Volume 2 to arrive! He seems so much happier now that he realizes his attempts to communicate his needs are getting through. I'm seeing a big improvement in behavior. Better yet, he seems to be trying to say words more. For example, this morning he signed for "eat", then verbally said "Bar!" which is what the children call their granola bars. It's a brand new word, so I am very excited! One word closer to the 50 we want! He also said bear the other day, though I haven't heard it since. He loves his bears.

This is a big positive in the sadness I felt over that report yesterday

So pleased for you and your boy, siuan.

Woot! That is so awesome!

My DD astounded me at that age. We bought her an alphabet puzzle and within a week. she knew all the letters AND sounds that they made- and could do the entire puzzle. It was crazy. She was reading a bit at 3, but I didn't push it, didn't want her to be WAY ahead of her class in Kindergarden. It didn't matter- by the endf of Kindergarden she tested at a 2nd grade level. At 9 and in 4th grade, she's now reading at a 10th grade level.

Good luck with him and that signing video sounds awesome!

yeehaw!! !! !

Thanks! I do enjoy the strengths, makes all the rest easier to digest.

Cool.

Verbal impairment doesn't always have to equate to the inability to communicate.

Doing well with the alphabet there; it took me many mummy and teacher hours to get me up to speed, when I was 6 that is. :)

Great news!

I had an inclination towards books very early. My mom joked I could read before I started school. I don't know if that's true, but in first grade I was reading at fifth grade level in English, even though it wasn't my first language. By sixth grade, I had 12th grade vocabulary scores. I eventually got a Master's in English.

I am sure that you could probably read by age 3, 9catmom. That is very common with these kids. Because my son's obsessions with numbers started as soon as he could physically turn the pages of a book, I put all the alphabet books away in his closet until he was 3 1/2 because I really didn't want him to be bored in school later. In spite of that, he will soon be 4 and can read.

He spent 2 days in a play-based preschool and came home knowing all his capital letters when he was 3. I brought out his alphabet books then because I figured it was too late. I never read them to him or talked to him about letters because I figured he had years to learn them. He didn't seem too interested in them anyway, so it was okay. He started a more academic preschool this Sept. and learned all the lowercase letters there. After about a month there he could read the names of all the kids in his class. Now he can also read half the names of the kids in the morning class whom he doesn't even know. He would read other things randomly when he was younger, but I wasn't sure if it was coincidental or if he had overheard someone read it and memorized what they had said. Now I realize that he really could actually read them, and he reads lots of things now. The other two spectrum kids in his class can also read, the youngest one who is barely 3 1/2 can read pretty much everything, and none of the other regular ed kids who are a year older can read.

When I was teaching a few years ago, there was an ASD boy in my partner's a.m. Kindergarten class, in which I helped because I taught the p.m. class. This boy ran around the room the entire first day of class and didn't stop for an instant. He then went home from school and wrote down from memory the entire class list of 20 - 30 names that he had somehow managed to glimpse at on a chart for a second while he was busily running around like a madman.

I am telling you, siuan, our kids of geniuses! I think that is what put them on the spectrum in the first place. Their brains are just too darn sensitive.

Laplantain,

Your son sounds amazing! I will be interested in hearing about his progress in school.

my oldest was the same way, we were at my mom's house and he took the magnets on the refridgerator and spelled his name with him, we watched him do it in total amazement! He could barely talk and had just started speech therapy, we had no idea he knew his letters or how to spell words. I bet your son will be an early reader!! ! How proud you must be!

We are crossing our fingers about his progress in school, as he focuses on what he likes and gets distracted by the other children in the class.

The reason that he can read the names is because he is obsessed with written lists of things, especially names-he will memorize names of stories in a table of contents, names of dinosaurs in a dinosaur dictionary, etc. etc. etc.

siuan, wow, congrats of finding a way to make communication go much smoother. That's brilliant, really! And of course it's awesome that he already knows the alphabet. Amazing news!