Step by step. Point after point. Slowly organize thoughts and feelings. Prevent the mess of chaotically dispersed words charged with the unruly emotions. Avoid the explosion of uncontrollable venting but but break through the walls of suffocating silence.

1. Robert and I still study together. In the morning we solve crosswords from one of Trip Payne books. The crosswords are easy. They are exercises in word recalls. They provide opportunity to practice some phrases which are the standard parts of many expressions. Finally, when neither Robert nor I know the answer, Robert looks for it by typing the clue on his IPAD.
2. Robert has still a lot of problems with listening comprehension. And I still have difficulties helping Robert to improve it. Exercises from No Glamour Listening Comprehension didn’t seem to help Robert. If I read the text, Robert hardly answers one of the four questions. However, when he reads the text, he finds the correct answers to all the questions quickly.
3. Cards, cards, and more cards. Many cards from Super Duper School Company, many cards from old publisher Lingui Systems. For pronunciation, for expressive language, for grammar, for… thinking, predicting, comparing…
4. with the help of publication from Attainment Company and Remedia Publications we work on many life skills. On proper vocabulary, on banking math, on reading adds, comparing prices, ordering menus.

I began the attempt to break long silence by describing simple and positive daily activities. But, as I work with Robert I wonder if he will ever have a chance to use those skills in his life outside our home.

I believe that Robert knows a few thousand words but…. he still uses less than 50 in everyday situations. Moreover, his pronunciation is so bad that rarely he is understood by people who don’t know him well. Even the people who know him well, including myself, cannot grasp the meaning of his utterances when he tries to express a relatively new concept. That doesn’t encourage him to talk.

Robert’s OCD like behaviors and his frequent perseverations present daily challenges. we were able to work on a few compromises and we calmly surrendered in other situations.

Compromise: Robert didn’t want to go on a two day long trip before completing his daily activities that included: two crosswords, two sets of 15 language cards, 7 different worksheets. Finishing all the tasks would take at least two hours and led to driving at night. I gave him unpleasant choices. I either throw away cards, crosswords and worksheets or we take them with us and do them at hotel. After some consideration, he packed all the materials.

Surrender: Two weeks ago, Robert had either seizure or was choking in a car. I stopped the car on the street, called 911 and two minutes later firefighters arrived and saved him.

In the process, they cut his T-shirt and a shirt. When in the hospital back to his old himself Robert saw his shirts, he kept demanding, “Sew, sew, sew, sew….” Over and over, and over. In the hospital, in the car, on the way home and in our home. “Sew, sew, sew………..” Drained emotionally after terrifying event and devoid of energy we surrendered. For over two hours, my husband and I calmly kept sewing both shirts. Robert was watching us like a hawk always ready to point to remaining holes. Still, understanding our shortcomings, he helped us to put the threads through needles.