Andrew persists

We got this email today from Clarice, Andrew's teacher:

Andrew has been pointing to a picture of the Arthur book Who is in Love with Arthur for a few days. Sometimes I think Andrew believes that we can make something appear just because he wants it. [ed: ditto]

Anyhow, yesterday he put the Arthur picture on his daily schedule and typed “dows lane Arthur bus yes.” We told him no, that we could not go on a bus to Dows Lane. So, while Annie was at lunch he came over to my desk with a pair of scissors and I asked him what he wanted. He pointed to my corkboard and I still did not know what he wanted. I told him to get what he wanted and he took my Irvington 2005-2006 directory off of the wall. On the front of it were tiny black and white pictures of each of the schools. He used the scissors to cut out the picture of Dows Lane, got a piece of Velcro off of the back of another item, and put it on the back of the Dows Lane picture. He then stuck the Dows Lane picture on his daily schedule next to the picture of the Arthur book. So, Annie went over to Dows Lane and got the book for him. He was happy for the rest of the afternoon and has been happy today until a 10 minute tantrum at noon. He typed “dows lane Arthur bus yes” again. I’d love to reinforce each effort to communicate, but the obsessive behavior that continually changes makes it very difficult.

This is a miracle.

Just a couple of years ago Andrew had no means of communication apart from grabbing our hands and pulling us to whatever it was that he wanted.

Now he's creating his own PECS cards.

He's still impossible; it's a wonder Clarice and Annie are still standing.

But they are.

Clarice and Annie persist, too.