Adding Acronyms to Acronyms

Hope Rudics

They always say things will change, but they never warn you how!

They told me there would be less frequent meltdowns once we passed the nonverbal stage. They said that communication would be easier, and Jude would be able to voice his wants and needs. He would become less frustrated, and so would I, his dad, and other caregivers around him. Now most of the guesswork would be gone! As it turns out, they were right.

But what they don’t prepare you for is the even bigger roller coaster of the verbal life, and where exactly that leads. When Jude was little, and before we were able to connect with him, we had to work out systems, give him options, and hold him up to point at what he was requesting from us. It started with two-word combos stemming from the basic ASL signs for “more please”. Slowly, we were able to develop that into “Can I have more milk, please?”, with emphasis on the question. Success! But with a major success such as becoming verbal at a late age also come many other challenges. He had a lot of time to soak up language from all around, so even as we were leaning more towards learning “please pass me the crayons”, he had already jumped into “I don’t have time for that, mommy!” Um… OK, then!