Our almost nine-year-old son has autism. He has a huge vocabulary, but is non-conversational. What that means is that he has a very difficult time expressing himself. He can use sentences - which is huge considering he used only single words at the age of five - but they are still very limited when it comes to trying to explain something.
The most recent example - M&M balls. He has been telling us for three weeks about M&M balls. The conversation usually starts with him asking, "You would like the M&M balls?" To which we would reply either "We don't have any M&M balls" or "I'm not sure what M&M balls you're talking about." He would come back with, "Sure! You can have the M&M balls."
Truthfully, we thought maybe he had seen an M&M commercial where either one of the cartoon M&Ms had a ball or were pretending to be a ball. We wracked our brains and couldn't think of anything he would be referring to.
Most of the time, our conversations are very similar to the above. And one of the things we love about him is his sense of humor. He absolutely loves to take something, give it an opposite spin, and wait for a response before laughing. For example, today he would refer to a local fast food restaurant's paint color by saying, "Taco Villa is red!" Then he watches us, a huge grin on his face, and waits for us to respond, "No! Taco Villa is green!" He laughs, which is incredibly contagious. :-)
We had begun to think maybe that's what was going on with the M&M balls, too. Maybe he was making a joke about them.
Until today. We stopped at Academy and as soon as we got there, he was very excited about the M&M balls. Thinking we may finally get some answers, we all went up and down the aisles with all different kinds of sports balls. He was starting to get frustrated when he finally saw them.
Proudly, he plucked a package of Wilson foam tennis balls, the W on each one, and held them up. "M&M balls!" He quickly read the logo and corrected himself, saying, "Wilson W balls!" He was happy to have finally found them, and even more excited that we now understood what he had been talking about. Yes, you bet we bought them for him. Not only that, but my husband created a makeshift basket for his room so he could throw the foam balls through it.
It takes a lot of effort and thought for him to try and express himself. But you know what? He never gives up. Never. How many of us could go through three weeks of trying to explain something you had seen without wanting to put our fist through a wall? I bet not too many of us. I'm pretty certain I couldn't.
Our son is a hero to me and an inspiration. I admire his perseverance, his honesty, his ability to be himself, and his outlook on life. I am truly blessed to be his mom.