u/RadioBusiness

Hi all

Just wanted to share this to try to bring some hope especially to families newer in their journey

I used to be a very regular on this board. But over the last couple years my son has made so much progress I find myself seeking support out as much.

My son is turning 8 next week and he’s hit such big strides that we never thought possibly

He’s still very verbally delayed. Not conversational yet. But he can have a pretty good back and forth of asking specific questions and getting an answer. But we aren’t at the point he could tell me about his day. He’s still in a sub separate classroom, and from an outsider he still looks very impaired

But he’s such an incredible kid and just is learning so much on his own time. He has never been a kid that you can just teach, he basically learns though his own quiet watching of the world and is like a sponge taking it all in

At 3, I tried potty training him which felt useless. Then one day overnight at 3.5 he just started using the potty, no training no rewards he just did it

In preschool they told me when he finished he didn’t really know any of his letters. We had a wooden alphabet puzzle and one day I asked him to bring me the C bring me the N etc and he brought every single letter. He just couldn’t show his skills the way school tested him

Last year he decided one day he wanted to learn how to ride a bike without training wheels. With his typical brother 2 years older we did the whole holding onto the bike and letting go. My ASD son at 7 just got on the bike without training wheels and went. No teaching at all. He’s so good we can go on bike trails as a family and ride

He’s receptive language is so so good. I give him obscure directions like “the remote is on my headboard in my room” and he goes and gets it

He seems like he’s not paying attention at all at school but will be home and randomly blurt out the days of the week or the months

One area I just always watched older kids start to grasp that I just could never imagine how we could get there, it seemed like such a huge leap was reading

My son loves to draw and draws allllll the time. Over the last few months he’s taken to spelling. He has a notebook he scribbles in like a madman.

This morning I woke up and he wrote “blues”. When we were waiting for the bus I said spell the color red and he said r-e-d

I said spell green “g-r-e-e-n”

I said spell flag and he said u- I said close what letter is ffffffff flag and he started spelling it f-l

Which tells me he didn’t just memorize the word he actually knows his sounds and is actually learning to spell

We have absolutely been through it. Kicked out of our family daycare at 3 that my older son graduates from and they treated us like family until my younger one exhibits ASD symptoms and suddenly we were a leper. A neuropsych where an old school doctor if you looo back in my post history basically said my son was never going to amount to anything. Years of no sleep as he was up all night (now he looks at books and sleeps solid from 9p-7am every night)

He’s made so many strides and I just wanted to share here. Progress will be made. I never expected any of these leaps they all seemed so far out of reach and then here he goes surprising us

I don’t go to Wendy’s all that often once every few months

Back in the fall I asked for my typical sweet and sour and was told they were out.

Then a few months later the same. Nobody ever told me it was gone

Last week I drove by my local Wendy’s and saw a sign “sweet and sour is back limited time only” and realized it was removed from the menu

I’m shocked by that I feel like it has to be one of the most popular sauces since every chain has s&s

My question- were you shocked it was removed and what’s the demand now that it’s back? Just trying to see if it’s not as popular as I assumed