You do it!

Along with reading goes writing. I started with a hand-over-hand method with Alex months ago, helping him fill lines of wide-ruled paper with words of things he loved: Mommy, Daddy, Ned, Toast (our cat, who he doesn’t love strictly speaking), grandpa, Aunt Julie, Uncle Rob, Elmo. Actually, we usually put “Elmo” first.

I held his hand as lightly as possible in mine during these exercises, guiding him only when needed through the letters. I hoped eventually to work my way down to his wrist, then to his elbow, then to let go entirely. The job was filled with unexpected delights: Once when a cold was going around the house, I tried to get him to write “cough.” We got as far as the C and the O when Alex asked, “Cold?”

The problem came when I tried to remove my hand. Alex was once penciling a line of ABCs when I pulled this. He patiently put down the pencil and reached out to place my hand back on top of his.

“No, Alex. I know how to write ABC. You do it…”

“You do it!” he said.

“Alex, c’mon. You can write this.”

“You do it.”

I think we actually did once write a line of “You do it”s.

We’re trying to do more short sentences now. Jill gave him a toy cheese wedge over the weekend, which he almost immediately began to play with, pretending to chew and swallowing elaborately. (This is a proven tactic for eventually getting him to eat real food.) I grabbed a pencil and a piece of paper and wrote, “I am eating cheese.”

When I show him these phrases, scribbled as soon as possible after he’s done something he enjoyed or asked a question or made a comment, Alex stops dead. Sometimes he looks right up at my face.

He placed his finger on the first word and said, “Eye. Eye want…”

“I am…”

“I am want-”

“I am eat…” I say, and let him finish:

“I am eating cheese! I am eating cheese!” We need to move on to little stories.

Temple Grandin offered her take on teaching autistic children to write here.

FICTION FOR NATIONAL AUTISM AWARENESS MONTH: Autism in non-fiction captures many headlines, but the condition shows up in fiction, too. The Library Journal offers a rundown of titles here.