Where is the switch?
Bridget goes through what seems like "fits and starts" in her development. She will seem stuck in the same place for awhile, making no progress despite all the attempts we make and her school staff makes to move her forward.
Then, just when we are exhausted from beating our head against the brick wall, and when we start to be afraid that she will never start to progress again, suddenly it happens.
Suddenly one after another, new things start to spring out of her. Like dominoes falling, it seems that one new thing just leads to another and another and another. Until suddenly it stops again.
We've been going through one of those episodes recently. It started like someone flipped a switch. I know that eventually it will stop the same way.
I wish I knew where that switch was. It would be wonderful to be able to turn it back on when it gets turned off.
Watching her make progress like this is amazing. It gives me hope for her future. That hope helps get me through the days of frustration of diaper changes on a 5 year old and wondering about whether she will ever eat a slice of pizza with us at dinner instead of Gerber purees.
She's just learned to start answering certain types of questions…will she learn the rest before suddenly the pause button gets hit on the process? I don't know.
We'll just have to make the most of the time we get before that happens and we're stuck in pause mode again, I guess.
You’re right – it is like a switch. As I look back over the years, now that Nigel is 14, I definitely see the same pattern you described: phases of great progress all at once, and then nothing for a while, or even regression. But then, at some point in the future, he starts progressing again. It’s an interesting cycle.
I have noticed the same thing with my 7 year old son – just when you are about to give up he shows progress. At first it was very frustrating but now that we know the pattern we just keep at it.