I Love my Mailbox

It is common for people with Williams Syndrome to perseverate on certain favorite topics. Some examples I have heard about include sports, scary things and TV Guide. Weed eaters and vacuum cleaners can be favorites in the younger sect. Louie follows me around whenever I get out the Oreck. He has had one big obsession that actually interfered with everyday life. It was a plastic toy mailbox with a flower on top in his preschool classroom. He liked to bend the flower over, let go and watch it reflexively bounce back to an upright position. There was also a thing you could spin on the base; he enjoys spinning stuff too. The mailbox was the first thing he went to when we got to his classroom. He didn't want to stop playing with it for circle time or therapy. He quit napping. He didn't even want to go home with me when I went to pick him up. He wanted to be with his mailbox at all times, in all circumstances. His teacher said he looked longingly at it when she changed his diaper, like "oh mailbox, I can't wait to be close to you again." Louie's interests are limited and he is nonverbal but is not hard to recognize his happy places and interests.

The good news is that his receptive communication skills are far better than his expressive communication skills. He seems to understand many things we say. One gift we were given is that the first expressive language Louie understood and responded to was "Give me kisses". We ask for and receive many kisses every day.

Unfortunately for him, he seldom gets to do the things he would really like to do if left to his own devices...throw things, spin things, play with cause and effect toys (both appropriately and inappropriately), and eat rice cakes because he keeps a rather busy schedule with all of his therapies and interventions. And we try to engage him as much as possible. Anyway, I find these quirks and potential obsessions interesting and amusing. I have to. Otherwise I think it may break my heart.

I look forward to conversations with Louie on whatever his favorite topic may be. He will be three in June. Almost three years without a single word. Sometimes I sort of forget that he will speak actual words someday. The obvious is there is very little communication happening between us. We recently began using the picture communication system after realizing that sign language was not working. After trying to teach him signs for a year and a half with no real progress, we had to find a different route. The four signs he knows he uses indiscriminately and will do all of them together if he really wants something. Hub, Nana, myself...most people very close to Louie have had dreams where he talks and says random things like "Put that in the trashcan." I can tell he is just bursting at the seams to tell us what he wants, likes, questions. I wonder what his voice will sound like.