Pictures

Brody is in this amazing new therapy called "PICS" at his new school, Barretts Elementary.

This is how it works...Basically, they bring out a couple of Brody's toys, his favorite toys, along with pictures of the toy. If Brody wants the toy, he must show them a picture of the toy he wants in order to play with it. Once he has the pictures down, then they graduate to words.

This morning I was just going about my way, dropping Brody off at school, when his teacher, Emily, asked me if I wanted to see this activity in action.

"Of course!" I yelled.

Emily went to grab the Disney Cars racetrack. Then she held a card with the picture of the race track and placed it on the table. She asked Brody to pick the card, he grabbed it, and then showed it to her, then she gave him a big hug. Next, he grabbed his Lightning McQueen. He put the car on the track, it spun around, and  he cheered.

He wanted to play again so he grabbed the card from the teacher, she gave him a kiss. And  then he continued playing. Each time he wanted to race he had to pick the card and show it to Emily. He did this for 10 minutes.

I have never seen Brody actually request a specific toy. He usually just went with whatever we gave him at home. He was so confident and direct with requesting what he wanted.

Every time he used the card to communicate, Emily would hug and kiss him. She said she got the best responses from Brody when he was hugged or kissed.

I can only hope that his sweetness will stay and he will always respond to love and affection. Who knows, if he keeps this up, he just might pull through this autism thing and come out speaking on the other side.