I'm very proud of my son. He's an amazing child. He was diagnosed with autism at 19 months old.
He didn't start talking until he was 3 (39 months according to our journal entry). There were times
I despaired he'd ever communicate socially or creatively. He's come a long way. :smile: Many people
are surprised to learn he is autistic, because he presents on first impression as a typical 8 year old boy.
He still has a few challenges but he's really doing great. :smile:
He's in an integrated classroom in third grade and has a special student assistant to help him throughout
his day at school with any difficulties that arise. Jacob also has a developmental co-ordination disorder.
The combination of the two challenges has made handwritten work a very frustrating task for him. He
labors so much over the formation of each individual letter that he loses his creative train of thought. As a
result, much of his handwritten works have been short, terse sentences, often unrelated to each other and
bearing no indication of inner thought processes. Recently, Jacob has been granted the occasional use of a
computer to complete some of his written work. The difference between what he wrote at a keyboard compared
to what he typically writes with paper and pencil floored us all! :supp:
I'm so impressed I wanted to share his story with you all. :smile:
Jacob okayed that idea (his goal in life is to be famous, lol! ) He's on his way to that already too; his story
appeared in his school's June newsletter as a space filler. One of only two stories that did.
The following note (from Jacob's in-class student assistant) was stapled to Jacob's printed out story and sent
home with him.
Take a look at Jacob's writing. I think it's terrific! Jacob definitely finds it easier to do written work on the computer.
Jay
Wed May 18 '05
Here is the story transcribed exactly as it was written by my son ...
Jacob's Zoo of Fabulous Amazing Animals
I have 4 animals I take care of. I have one set of Sea Monkeys (brime shrimp), 2 cats, Samantha and
Gordie and six snails in 1 container (only the snails are in the container I was talking about). Here are the
profiles about the four pets I have:
The Sea Monkeys:
The sea monkeys start breeding at 3 to 5 weeks old. Right now they are 4 weeks old but are small. I know
that they will problarery grow a little big.
Samantha:
Samantha is a bit of a nasty cat. Although she is a bit of a nasty cat she is rather a sweet cat as long as you
don't follow her around and/or pick her up(else she will hiss and scratch at you(she always hisses at you
least 11 times before). She is all black and has yellow eyes.
Gordie:
Gordie is nice cat. He doesn't like being picked up, although all he'll do about it is minow at my zia. Gordie
has long, vanilla white fur. He always looses his fur and leaves it behind wherever he goes. Gordie is a bit
skinny. He loves dry and wet cat treats, the wet ones come in small cans(the treats in them are all fixed
together in one) and the dry ones come in medium sized bags of little treats.
The Six Snails:
I have six garden snails. They are milti colored: black, yellow and brown are the main colors. the snails
feed on grass and clovers. They live in a small container ( big compaired to them) that sits in my bedroom
on top of my bookshelf. The cats do not get at them.
All in all my most favorite animal is Gordie. Gordie is so nice, he will let me pick him up and put him on
my stomach. I do enjoy all my animals but Gordie by far is my most favorite pet. That is it, my zoo is
complete.
Jacob, age 8 1/2, Grade 3
FYI : minow is Jacob's phonetic interpretation of "meow" and
zia is what he calls his step-mom.
Did I mention I'm proud of him?