Day 1 - Ramping Up

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The speech therapy book that I had ordered from Amazon arrived today. It's called "Improving Speech and Eating Skills in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders." When the box arrived, I was both excited and nervous. After all, what the hell do I know about teaching someone how to talk? Isn't it supposed to be something that every kid just kinda learns naturally? I know my parents used to wish that I had never learned to talk because I never shut up, not even when I am sleeping.

So here sits my conundrum; how do I teach someone, in this case, my non-verbal autistic son, to use something that I was overly blessed with? I'm hoping this book will give me a few pointers and direction (straight down isn't an option). And, I promised myself (ok, it was more of a veiled threat) that when the book arrived, it was time to get serious and start mapping out a plan of action while I wait for his speech DVDs to show up.

Here's the rough draft of my action plan:

1. Read the book. (I know...DUH)
2. Create a lesson plan (yeah, I have no idea how to do this).
3. Get a notebook to journal the lessons, nutritional supplements, thoughts, and progress/failures.
4. Organize my day to make it most efficient to get in all the normal stuff as well as speech.
5. Seek out resources.
6. Commit to a daily blog post to summarize the day

If there are any educators, special education teachers, therapists, parents that have had this issue, or someone that might have a brilliant (heck, I'd even take luke-warm) idea or can point me in the direction of some great resources, I'd love to hear them in the comments.

I think I'm ready to start down this road. I hope it's a journey filled with positive advancements. Failure is NOT an option.