Progress comes in many different shapes and forms, especially when it comes to our boys. This little picture is a HUGE, huge step forward.
Those letters are Sawyer's.
Let me say that again. Those letters are Sawyer's. This is the little boy who hates any kind of fine motor activity. A kid who has never liked coloring or writing. A kid who has just recently, at the age of seven, shown an interest in letters at all.
And those are his letters. He wrote, from memory, "Viewers like you (in orange)" and "Thank you (in green)". He's learning the phrases from his brother's drawings and writing, but he's replicating it completely on his own from memory.
Letters. Words. Phrases. Write now it's just duplication. But someday ... someday it could be communication. It could be describing something he likes. Something he wants. Something he feels.
Huge.
None of this would be possible without all of the amazing people in place on "Team Sawyer" - both at school and at home. His teachers. His therapists. His aides. So many people have played a role in getting him, and us, to this point.
Special thanks are definitely in order to his private occupational therapists, Ms. A and Ms. J, who started him on a new writing program over the summer because they thought it would offer a meaningful way for him to communicate outside of his current signs, gestures and his iPad software. We moved away from just Handwriting Without Tears to a box and arrow system. The visual and spacing really made a difference for him.
Letters. Words. Phrases. That's my boy.