Just Keep Trying

Talking to my sister yesterday, her FXS boy is about 9 months younger than Connor and inevitably the two get compared. She was despairing of all the things her little man still doesn't do and it made me think about Connors development.

I have often despaired of Connor being able to do things. He was nearly 2 before he even touched food or ate more than a purée. He would vomit rather than touch anything with texture and we didn't even mention craft with glue and paint. After nearly 6 months of therapy and playgroup he's a different boy. Now you can't get the paint brush out of his hand, he's gluing projects together, climbing up the slide by himself, putting milk away in the fridge and climbing up onto his change table for nappy changing. He's following complex instructions like 'pick that toy up and go into the lounge room' and opens the car door and gets up into his car seat all by himself. Yesterday he even went and got the broom and starting 'sweeping' the lounge room.

We were told early intervention was the key with these kids and yesterday, talking to my sister, I realised we were already seeing the truth of that. The combined wisdom of the OT's, Speach Therapists, feeding team, nutritionist and peadeatricians has guided Connor forward and shown me how to help him as well. But most importantly is has shown me not to give up. Just because Connor couldn't do something one week didn't mean we didn't keep trying. When faced with a tunnel 12 months go Connor freaked out and wouldn't go near it. Now he happily climbs through all by himself grinning madly at how clever he is.

We don't know what his future is or how far his development will go and it's certainly much harder to gauge with him still not speaking a word. But I have to remember that he constantly surprises me and that his enthusiasm and curiosity can take him a long way. I shouldn't despair, I should just remember how far he has already come and never give up.