Mom's Comment

Below I posted one of Jonathan's writing pieces. He hates to write. He actually typed this on my mom's Quick Pro Pad (like an AlphaSmart used in classrooms for kids who have difficulty writing). I only edited his writing to correct his very creative spelling. I had to ask him to translate some words for me.

Reading and writing are his two least favorite subjects. It's a major battle every night and through the summer to get him to do either or both. These two subjects don't come naturally to him. He's only now beginning to articulate that he doesn't think in words. He thinks in pictures and numbers. His private counselor asked him to show her how he thinks. He told her that she'd need a bigger dry erase board in her office. She got one. He's only given her one brief lesson but it was eye-opening to me. He wrote down a series of numbers and then assigned a word value to them. I don't recall the actual numbers and words, but it was something like, "63 =I have to go to the bathroom." "79=I'm hungry"

Remember in an earlier blog entry I wrote that he'd answer our questions with numbers? And I told you that as he got older, we began to realize when he gave us a number it was because he didn't have the vocabulary to answer? So when we got a number answer, we'd provide him with possible words.

Now it's starting to make sense.

For three years he could not remember the words "lunch" or "dinner." This was a problem since he insisted on praying for our meals. Every meal it was the same, "Dear Lord, thank you for our...." Long pause. We'd give him the correct word. My oldest son found this extremely annoying. "He knows the word! He's just messing with us! Make him stop!"

We talked to the neuro-psychologist about it. He said, "Jonathan's brain is like a California garage." I'd never heard that expression before, so it didn't mean anything to me. I asked for clarification. "Jonathan's garage (brain) is so full that he can't park any cars in it. And when he gets something new he has to find a nook or cranny for it. Sometimes he files it in a place that he can't remember or it's not easily accessible."

One night, after learning more about "visual-spatial" giftedness (people who can visualize, see 3-D, fill in the missing picture, etc.) and thinking about the doctor's comments, I said to Jonathan. "I want you to pull up the word 'dinner' in your brain." He said, "Okay." I asked, "Can you see it?" He said he could. "I want you to move that word to the correct place in your brain." He sat there for a few minutes. I could almost see on his face the little sand timer like our computer displays when it's processing. "Done," he said.

For about a year he didn't hesitate when he thanked God for our dinner. Every once in awhile, the word gets lost again and we have to stop and have him refile that word into the correct place.