If You’re Happy… – Small Steps Amazing Achievements

From twelve weeks old I took Ethan to song time at the library, it got us out of the flat and I had visions that we would spend afternoons singing nursery rhymes together.

This never happened.

As Ethan got older he didn’t want to sit on my lap like the other children did, he just wanted to walk round and round the library and would stop to watch the other children singing songs he recognised. Twinkle Twinkle was a firm favourite. Sometimes he would even clap the other children when a song ended, but try as I might I couldn’t get him to join in.

This was before I realised Ethan was autistic.

Last September Ethan started nursery and I stopped taking him to the library, it was getting too stressful for me to try to keep him still. I knew that he was getting his nursery rhyme fix there so I was happy.

As this year has passed I have caught Ethan looking in the mirror in our bedroom and pointing to his head, head shoulders knees and toes. He also does funny actions with his hands and I worked out some of the actions were for wind the bobbin up and some fish song that I was never given the words for.

Well I can proudly say we have mastered If You’re Happy and You Know It! It has taken years but Ethan can do the actions and, on good days, we are now even getting a ‘We are!’

I have videoed it for you to enjoy but please excuse my terrible singing, I’m no X Factor finalist, and I normally remove my voice from all video’s. This just proves how much I want to share this moment with you all.