Yes,but Johnny's never ever been on his own ,from what I'm told. He can write some things and understand some things. I know that sounds vague.
Sorry I keep talking about my child ,,but it's the only way I know how to describe developmental disability so bear with me:
My son isn't on any particular age level.He is all over the board
.Nothing ,and I mean nothing ,came naturally to him.Every word he says that is appropriate is because he was TRAINED to say it and each one took years .
He answers any who ,what where question with "yeah".
He knows what certain things mean like school,car,music,etc.. Mostly things he likes and often accompanied by sign language.
Every year we have to retrain him to answer "how old are you" .Just when he starts to get it right he has another birthday! He doesn't understand the concept of age but he can be taught to answer the question.
If you ask" are you six" he will answer "yeah" : )
Now this is important .My son knows routines and any deviation from them upset him terribly .There's no way to explain that you just have to make a quick stop to get milk .He just knows we aren't doing what we are supposed to.I try not to go to that ugly place.
I think that's what happened to Johnny.
He had routines at home and the trip was such a deviation ,he left to go back to where he knew what was coming next ...home.
What comes next is really important to those who have limited understanding.It's the only way they feel really safe.
My son cannot write or color in lines,but he is being trained to. It's not fun or natural to him but if he can write his name and where he lives,like Johnny can,it could be important one day.
He can ride a bike with training wheels ,but he still wants to sit down to go down stairs.
He can get to his videos on his IPad and make the sound go slow or fast .He figured that out on his own,but he doesn't always understand what "shut the door " means.
I bet Johnny understands more than he can verbalize. My son can verbalize more than he can understand.
At an IEP meeting I was asked how many words he knew and I answered about 30. private speech therapist came later and I asked her what she thought and she said 500.
The difference is,my son can say the word when shown an object on a flash card ,but he doesn't know how to translate that over to real life situations.
You can't pigeon hole these guys into any age level . Some skills are better than others.
My gut tells me someone must be helping Johnny and just doesn't realize he's a missing person.
I pray he's safe.
