C is for Cash

     I can remember with my first two sons, when it came to holding a crayon, it was like second nature to them. They picked it up and started to color without a problem. Looking back, I guess I took it for granted. It is just something you're supposed to do. When it came time for Cash to start doing that is around when we found out about his autism. When we got the diagnosis it made sense why he wasn't expressing interest in doing things like starting to scribble or color. He had a hard time grasping a crayon.  

     To help with skills like this and some others, Cash is in an autistic support classroom, and he had speech therapy, occupational therapy, and physical therapy. I can't say enough about how much these individual therapies have helped and encouraged Cash. He went from pointing at snacks, to communicating what he wanted, to eventually being able to ask for it in a full sentence. That was a huge win. You could see how good it made him feel to be able to communicate his needs to us.

     Something Cash has never struggled with is coordination. This baby boy, just like my other two, started running, not walking, at the age of nine months. I have videos of him at 18 months old climbing up monkey bars, unassisted, and swinging down. The upper body strength of this child always blew us away. So, when it came to the struggle to hold a crayon, I couldn't figure it out. When we tried to help him, it would often end in frustration. This is why we left it up to the professionals. Slowly but surely, with the help of his therapists, Cash has been able to hold and draw with a crayon for some time now. It’s definitely not his favorite activity, but he can do it. Then, they worked up to writing his name. He figured that out, however he has to write with the teacher to make sure all the letters are going the correct direction. Unassisted, Cash loves to write that C backwards. The teacher will continue to show him, he'll do it, she walks away, and boom that C is backwards again.  As a Mom I found this adorable, but  I knew eventually the kid would need to get this right. Well, yesterday, on his sixth birthday, I received an email from his summer school teacher. It read, "Cash wrote his name beautifully and completely independently today". She sent the pictures to us and they're the ones I’ve attached to this blog post. Super proud of our Cashy boy!