Grandson

Good morning everyone

You all sound very inspirational. It's so good to talk and I am glad I joined this forum.

His mummy, daddy and myself are obtaining as much information as possible, but till the diagnosis comes we can only go by what we read.

Does anyone have any good tips on how to assist with learning to talk, getting him to make eye contact?

Any words of advice will be much appreciated.

Many thanks to all who have replied to me, it really does mean a lot.

Have a lovely day and a very happy Friday.

Grandma x

I don't know about helping him learn to talk, but I want to offer as gently as I can some thoughts about getting him to make eye contact.

My experience, as an adult who remained undiagnosed until the age of 51 (and even now I'm waiting for formal evaluation) is that eye contact is one of many things that I find exhausting, fatiguing, though apparently "typical" people enjoy it to some extent. Because I was undiagnosed, I've spent decades "trying" and being exhausted by it, contributing (not the sole cause) to several bouts of severe depression. 

Would my experience have been easier if I had been "trained" or "coached" into eye contact as a child? Maybe, maybe not. I suspect that the training experience would have been traumatic and would have maybe embedded the injunction to "try" even more, resulting in more fatigue as an adult rather than less.

Anyway, I don't know for sure, but I just want to suggest caution before you try to "correct" any of your beloved grandson's behaviours. You wouldn't invest time in coaching someone born with no legs learning to run :-).

Hope that makes sense and comes across as intended, not a criticism but just offering some thoughts x

I don't know about helping him learn to talk, but I want to offer as gently as I can some thoughts about getting him to make eye contact.

My experience, as an adult who remained undiagnosed until the age of 51 (and even now I'm waiting for formal evaluation) is that eye contact is one of many things that I find exhausting, fatiguing, though apparently "typical" people enjoy it to some extent. Because I was undiagnosed, I've spent decades "trying" and being exhausted by it, contributing (not the sole cause) to several bouts of severe depression. 

Would my experience have been easier if I had been "trained" or "coached" into eye contact as a child? Maybe, maybe not. I suspect that the training experience would have been traumatic and would have maybe embedded the injunction to "try" even more, resulting in more fatigue as an adult rather than less.

Anyway, I don't know for sure, but I just want to suggest caution before you try to "correct" any of your beloved grandson's behaviours. You wouldn't invest time in coaching someone born with no legs learning to run :-).

Hope that makes sense and comes across as intended, not a criticism but just offering some thoughts x