There’s something that is often overlooked when it comes to Emmett. He’s incredibly intelligent and I mean scary smart. Academically he’s way ahead of where he should be and just keeps going. This is something we feel blessed to be able to witness but there is a downside.

Emmett is so smart and so articulate that it’s incredibly easy to forget that he has a very, very difficult time with expressive language.

Majority of the time, he’s unable to tell us anything about how he’s feeling or what’s upsetting him. Tonight is a perfect example of this.

Lizze and I are catching up on some shows we recorded and out of nowhere, Emmett appears. We can see he’s in distress but the only thing he can say is I don’t know. Frankly, it’s more like screaming than talking.

We both tried to figure out what was wrong but if we asked him anything, he just screamed I don’t know..

Do you have a tummy ache?

I don’t know…

Are you feeling okay?

I don’t know…

Did you have a bad dream?

I DON’T KNOW…..

I sometimes forget that he struggles with expressing himself because he’s so smart and he can compensate fairly well most of the time. Having said that, if there’s even the slightest bit of emotion, anxiety or distress, he doesn’t know what to say. It’s frustrating for him especially, but for us as well because all we want to do is help him.

We’ve tried things like flash cards or visual prompts but it’s like he just can’t inventory himself. Does that make sense?

He can’t put words to how he’s feeling or what he’s going through.

As for tonight, my guess is that he’s not feeling well. He had a similar issue last night and we ended up camping out in the living room. I’m hoping to avoid that tonight but I’ll do whatever he needs me to do, assuming I can figure out what the fuck that is.. 😞