Count It All Joy

Gabe’s Alphabet Marathon

Gabriel Ilias is our 3 year old son who though he is very vocal, at this point in his development he is “non-verbal”.  Meaning he has not developed the ability to form many words.  He is always talking, but very little is understandable.  To Lady Mandy and I, sometimes it honestly sounds as though he is speaking another language, his own language or his own form of pig latin.. 

Gabriel loves to watch his little baby einstien videos and I would say his favorite is the one called “First Signs”.  The video has people and puppets teaching the young viewer basic words in sign language, ie.  hello, milk, help, mommy, daddy, etc.  Gabe has always been very expressive with his hands and it is almost like his hands have their very own personality. 

A lot of times his hand activity seems as if he is trying to communicate the things he has seen and learned from the First Signs video.  The only problem with that thought (hope) is most of the time is hands move in the same motions (hands about eye level, fingers opening and closing, like making a fist, and his hands and wrist turn in/out, in/out, in/out very fast, as he is humming, singing or just talking loudly.

One thing that Gabriel has learned to love to say and say pretty good (and for us he is doing great!!!) is his alphabet.  Gabe looooves his ABC’s, he loves his alphabet blocks, his alphabet books, alphabet videos, his ABC shoes, he loves to hear them, see them and write them.  The only thing about the latter is he hasn’t quite grasp the concept of writing (he’s to excited about seeing and saying them to focus on writing them).  Gabe will literally follow (most times chase behind) us with his doodle boards, chalk, pencils, crayons, makers, whatever, for us to write, recite and rewrite the alphabet.

The other day he “made” me write the alphabet about 15-20 times with chalk in the back yard.  Each time I would finish he would show up with a different color of chalk, open my hand, put the chalk in my hand, pull me to the spot he wanted me to write and start speaking Gabe Latin, with the only understandable word being A-B-C.  He and I wrote all over the ground, we wrote on the garage, we wrote on the easel, on the slide and he even wanted me to write on the dark wood lawn chairs (I didn’t think his momma would appreciate that very much, so I didn’t). 

When we started running out of space to continue the Alphabet Marathon, I took a piece of blue chalk and wrote A-B-C on his hand and forearm (it wiped right off), at which point he looked up at me (as only Gabriel can) as if to say “no man that’s not right…momma told me no writing on yourself…we write on paper”.  After attempting to expressing that with his hands, he nice and politely put the piece of chalk in my hand and pulled me once again towards the ground to began the Alphabet Marathon all over again. 

Though I had other things to do (like get dinner ready, finish the laundry I had been trying to finish for 2 days or preparing the house for bath and bed time), I counted every moment as a moment of joy.  I was able to stir up the joy that is within heart because our non verbal, autistic son, one, loves his abc’s and two he is willing and working hard to communicate the best way he knows how, that he finds much joy in seeing us write, recite and rewrite the alphabet…and for Gabriel it never gets old.

The next time you feel tempted to be inpatient or get frustrated with a little autistic one about their obsessive tendencies, please remember James 1:2 says, “Count it all joy when you fall into various trials (things that try your patience and faith), knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience”.