This is Aidan, our second youngest. Often referred to as The Lord of Chaos, he is extremely clever and mischievous, and enjoys wreaking havoc upon our already cacophonous household! Fortunately, he chose parents who have a sense of humor and an appreciation of wiseassery (think I just made up a word!). That being said, he is very sweet and loves meeting people. He was a bright and sociable baby who developed normally up until about 15 months, when he rapidly lost all of his language and skills. He was on a regular vaccine schedule until he was about 9 months old, when we decided to delay the rest until he got older due to concerns about the vaccine connection to autism. In other words, he did NOT have the MMR vaccine that so many kids get at 15-18 months, but still regressed. I may never know what caused this, but I do know that he has struggled more than my others in a lot of ways, and in addition he has had severe lead poisoning from a home that we rented (the landlord lied about the home being deleaded, resulting in Aidan nearly dying from such high lead levels...but that's a long story, maybe for some other time). So, there is a possibility that he has suffered neurological damage from the lead; however, I do not want to dwell upon all of these negative things, but more so the progress he is making. The past few years have been looking up for him in a lot of ways, partially because of an excellent school program and partially because of breakthroughs with Rapid Prompting Method, although it has been less regular with me going back to school. He will be receiving some in-home services after school, and I have decided to cut down to one class partially in order to have more time for RPM and for my family in general. His communication is getting better using some sign language and RPM choices. We are still working on spelling on a letterboard and typing on his iPad, and he has surprised me with words I didn't know he knew! He is extremely intelligent and without RPM I would have no way to measure this, although I had no doubt. His favorite subject is science, especially learning about animals and plants. His level of comprehension is remarkable, and he loves to be included in conversations and to have things he has learned be a topic of discussion because this helps him to apply the knowledge gained. I have noticed that teaching him and involving him is the best "behavior strategy" of all, and will benefit him more than any other throughout his life. The more he interacts and feels he belongs, the calmer he becomes. I love that although he doesn't have words, he will not be silent, nor will he allow me to become complacent.
