I'm not sure I can accurately express what the pictures above mean to me. Preston was not a toddler who colored with crayons. EVER. The other kids would bring their pictures home with scribbles or neatly colored hair, but Preston's was blank with his name written at the top by the adult helping him that day. Every. Single. Time. It happened at church. It happened in preschool. It was just a reality. We had bigger fish to fry at the time. He wasn't talking. He couldn't dress himself. He didn't even try. He couldn't follow one-step directions, let alone two or three-step directions. So I didn't think much of his lack of artistic ability. He never even held onto a crayon or marker until about age 4. A couple months after he went through the Sensory Learning program (just before he turned 5) he brought me a paper from Primary. It had two big circles, each with two smaller circles, and what clearly looked like sticks for hands and legs. It was very basic and so light you could barely see the drawing itself (because his fine motor skills were so poor at the time) but I could tell he was actually trying to draw a picture of himself and of me. I started to bawl like a baby! He was a little nervous at my reaction. "What's wrong, Mom?" I just replied, "Nothing. I'm just really, really happy. Sometimes moms cry when they're really happy." He looked at me like I was completely crazy and I put him in his carseat. Then I went into the church to show my husband (who had to stay late for a meeting). I could not believe it! It shocked me! Since then, I have realized Preston's love for art and creativity, but lack of ability due to struggles with his fine motor skills. For awhile he would finish his drawings and then continue to fill an entire paper with every color of the rainbow surrounding the picture he had colored. I think something from the lights really triggered a greater awareness of colors for him and it's almost like he thought and saw in color in a way I cannot comprehend.
Last week, Preston brought me the drawing pictured at the top of this post. He's a big fan of minions so it didn't surprise me that he had drawn minions, although I was quite surprised at how much more accurate his drawings are becoming. I wish I had a "before" and "after" picture, but all his older drawings are safely tucked away in a box in the attic, and I'm not sure I could find one that would accurately portray the improvement he has made anyway. Not only could I tell he had drawn three minions, (instead of having to ask him what he had drawn) but he had included other details in the picture. He has NEVER done that. EVER!! He has never drawn people and included a sky or sun or flowers. So when I saw an entire picture surrounding his minion drawings, I about fell over. Then he proceeded to tell me all about the picture. "Do you know what this is, Mom? It's a picture of three minions who are friends who were hiking through the jungle and saw 10 monkeys climbing a great, big tree. They waved to a lizard sitting on a rock in the middle of the ocean. It was funny to see a squirrel swimming in the water. It was a sunny day and they saw a flower while they were walking on the grass." Holy Moly! He just told me an entire store about his drawing. And it was cute. And creative. And not something he'd seen in a television show or movie. AMAZING! He went downstairs for a few minutes and came back with tape and asked me if he could put the picture on my bedroom door. And so began the art door in my bedroom. I noticed his name at the top of the paper and then realized what he had done. He went downstairs and wrote his name and two of his friends' names on the picture. He named the minions. Then he told me he was the middle one because he was the tallest. He spelled correctly and legibly. His brain thought through multiple steps to draw a picture, create a story, and then relay it to me. For those who have children who are neurotypical and are used to young children coloring pictures or telling stories, this may seem like a strange mom "bragging" about her kid's random artwork, but to those who understand all the neurological gaps in his development, I tell you this is HUGE! The skills required for his brain to complete so many operations at once are a great big deal! It's another really amazing leap for Preston. And it comes at a really good time because we have had several REALLY HARD weeks in a row. It was all I could do to hold on for dear life and continue with all the steps required each day.
The second picture is a pumpkin he drew for Halloween. Nothing special, except that he drew it without my knowledge and taped it to what has now become his art door.
The third picture he brought home from church today. It's a picture of him washing windows (I know it resembles a monkey bird, but it's Preston). See the window on the one side and the bucket and squeegee on the other side? So cute! I'm guessing they had a lesson about serving others or helping your mom and dad because he also brought home four hearts. He kept telling me, "I can't tell you what those hearts are for, Mom. You'll have to wait and see." But he came in and asked me for stuff to wash the windows and proceeded to do so (no they're not perfect and yes he used a TON of Windex, but it was so cute how much he cared about following through with his assignment from church). After lunch and afternoon exercises, he headed out back to rake leaves and again mentioned something about hearts and not being able to tell me about them. I was just glowing! Seriously! How sweet is this child! First of all, he understood the lesson. Second, he thought of something he wanted to help with, drew it, and came home and followed through on it. Third, he was actually excited to serve. Can you see how HUGE this is for him? He has NEVER done anything like that before. EVER! And he even attempted to keep it secret. His 007 skills are a bit lacking, but he didn't flat out tell me what he was doing and that's something. It was totally ADORABLE!! I could just squeeze him!
I included the last picture because Dylan has been coloring Pokemon pictures lately so when I saw this coloring page with Pokemon written on it, I thought for sure Dylan had written it. Nope! It was Preston. His handwriting has improved a ton. Yes, he still uses upper and lower case letters randomly throughout words, and I'm sure he was looking at a card or something else to get the correct spelling from, but still. The fact that I could mistake his handwriting for Dylan's is crazy. Now to Dylan's credit, his handwriting is much better than this, but because Preston's used to be so difficult to decipher, it took me a minute to realize Preston had written it. Also, we have tried every pencil grip in the universe (and I am not exaggerating here) to try to help him learn to grip a pencil correctly. He just could not do it. He still gripped a marker more or less like a baby. It's gradually become more of a pencil grip with ALL his fingers resting on the pencil, and now I think he's dropped the pinkie. It's still not perfect, but it's looking more and more like a regular pencil grip. And that is not because we've been working on it more. The work has been done - over and over and over. But as his ability and strength increase and some of his primitive reflexes start to recede, he is able to do things he couldn't do before.
I had forgotten what "normal" looked like from the time Dylan was a toddler and preschooler to the time Preston reached that age. I knew he was behind and struggling, but we were dealing with so many challenges that it was easy to overlook obvious ones. When my 2 year old daughter (who is now 4) started trying to put her clothes and shoes on by herself one day and could hold a crayon correctly to scribble, I realized that these steps are supposed to occur naturally. She was doing things that Preston could not do as a 5 year old (and hadn't really attempted on his own). I realized that you are not supposed to have to work with a child for hours and hours for them to kind of sort of catch onto the concept of a new skill like that. It's supposed to develop naturally. For him, understanding was always a challenge so his auditory processing skills needed to improve, but fine motor skills are a big deal. They affect so much of what an individual is able to do. Although I don't know exactly where he's at with fine motor skills right now, Preston's drawing and writing skills are definitely improving. Yay to progress!
