| Will my son speak? |  |
| Will my son speak? |  |
Will he ever utter a word? Will I ever hear him say a word?
This had been my query and worry at all points of time, till he started speaking at 7.
I am not the only soul thinking on these lines. There are thousands and thousands of parents of children with autism, who sleep daily carrying all this and a lot more.
It takes time for one to understand that communication does not essentially mean ‘speaking’ words. Only when that realization happens, do we start appreciating and looking for the various unspoken modes of communication in which the child expresses.
Even then, a very basic, yet strong desire to hear his or her child speak is common to every parent, whoever they may be. Every mother, in particular, is eagerly waiting for the day when her child will call her “amma” or “ ma”. And I don’t think that this by any standards is asking for too much or being greedy.
Till date, every mother that I have met definitely expresses her anxiety as to whether her child would call her one-day. And every time, I can see my own self in that mother and thus fully empathize with her.
Having gone through this stage, my son started saying words at around 7 years, when he would just say a word suddenly, though appropriately. I would refer to them as “golden words”, as he would never repeat it. I used to wonder whether I was just dreaming or he had really said it. Gradually, the frequency of these golden words increased. And so the story goes.
It is not that a mother does not understand what her child wants. She does not need words for that. But her urge that her child be understood by all is what makes her over anxious about the entry of words in his life.
If the plan of God is such, so be it. He should definitely have a plan for such a person to have an effect on society. It also makes us as “regular persons” to wonder whether we value this greatest gift of God and use it for what it is meant. Let us take a moment to think about it before we wonder why some don’t speak.
This had been my query and worry at all points of time, till he started speaking at 7.
I am not the only soul thinking on these lines. There are thousands and thousands of parents of children with autism, who sleep daily carrying all this and a lot more.
It takes time for one to understand that communication does not essentially mean ‘speaking’ words. Only when that realization happens, do we start appreciating and looking for the various unspoken modes of communication in which the child expresses.
Even then, a very basic, yet strong desire to hear his or her child speak is common to every parent, whoever they may be. Every mother, in particular, is eagerly waiting for the day when her child will call her “amma” or “ ma”. And I don’t think that this by any standards is asking for too much or being greedy.
Till date, every mother that I have met definitely expresses her anxiety as to whether her child would call her one-day. And every time, I can see my own self in that mother and thus fully empathize with her.
Having gone through this stage, my son started saying words at around 7 years, when he would just say a word suddenly, though appropriately. I would refer to them as “golden words”, as he would never repeat it. I used to wonder whether I was just dreaming or he had really said it. Gradually, the frequency of these golden words increased. And so the story goes.
It is not that a mother does not understand what her child wants. She does not need words for that. But her urge that her child be understood by all is what makes her over anxious about the entry of words in his life.
If the plan of God is such, so be it. He should definitely have a plan for such a person to have an effect on society. It also makes us as “regular persons” to wonder whether we value this greatest gift of God and use it for what it is meant. Let us take a moment to think about it before we wonder why some don’t speak.