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Three words, "read a story." I have waited since my son was three and just learning to talk to hear those words.

Just in the past couple of weeks he has been requesting a story be read to him. Our house is full of books. All of us love to read here, we have overflowing bookshelves.

Beginning when my son was three years old through the age of five, if we even attempted to read him a book, his response was to grab it out of our hands and throw it on the floor. He would also flip through the book not even attempting to look at the words or pictures and then slam it shut.

It wasn't just his books he would toss around. He would throw my daughter's books across the room. Once he took a hardback book that I had taken out from the library and threw it up in the air before I could catch him. The book fell on the floor and right out of the binding. I paid close to $40.00 to the library. An expensive lesson was learned from that experience.

Parents of typically developing children take it for granted that their child will learn to read. When you are a parent of a child with special needs, whether it's Autism or any other disability, that may not always happen. I can honestly say at times I had my doubts as to whether my son would ever be interested in books, much less learn to read.

From the time he was five years old to seven years old if I said, "hey, how about I read you a book?", his response was "how about NO please!" Very frustrating to say the least.

One of the best investments I ever made was a set of magnetic letters that you can attach to the fridge. I bought them probably when my son was about two. My son is a visual learner. He likes to take the letters and spell things.

Recently, he took every single letter off the fridge, put them A-Z on the floor and then told me "alphabet." I love that he can tell me what he has done.

Believe me, it hasn't always been like that. He is learning that words have meanings attached to them. Having a story read to him has become part of his bedtime routine. The hubby used to read our daughter a book every night before bedtime and he would read to my stepson when he was younger too. I'm so glad that the love for reading has now made it's way to my son. I am confident that his interest for reading will only get stronger as time goes on!!

To read more from Cathy, visit bountifulplate.blogspot.com