He can type?!?

OK, I’ve heard a lot recently about non or barely verbal autistic children being able to type and communicate like gangbusters. Typically this is for older children, though.

When you start seeing your own speech-struggling, not-terribly-receptive-to-word-games toddler identifying letters on a computer keyboard, that’ll freak you out, in a good way of course.

J-Man LOVES computer keyboards. He doesn’t bang on them at all, just thoughtfully presses keys here and there. I occasionally hand him one from our pile of surplus keyboards, but it doesn’t interest him as much unless it’s attached to a computer he can ‘accidentally’ reboot or delete files from…

In any case, he stood in front of Mary’s laptop and started playing around with the keyboard. Here’s the I’m-not-making-this-up summary.

M: Where’s the ‘K’?
J: (after a few seconds, presses the ‘K’ several times)
M: That’s right! ‘K’!
J: Kay-kay.

M: Where’s the ‘U’?
J: (hunts thoughtfully for about 15 seconds, then presses the ‘U’ many times)
M: That’s right! ‘U’!
J: (something like) uh-ooo!

[Daddy is currently scraping his jaw off the floor.]

[Crowd thinks, surely not another?!]

M: Where’s the ‘Y’?
J: (hunts thoughtfully for a few seconds, then presses the ‘Y’ a few times)
M: That’s right! ‘Y’!
J: (tries to say something like ‘Y’)

We repeat this for ‘M’ too, and after that he says ‘muh-muh’, at which time I’m simultaneously freaked out and dumbfounded and especially proud.

Maybe we should go get him one of those toddler computer-y things that talks back when you press a letter.

Dude. I don’t know what to do with this one yet. Well, except say “Yay!”