Language explosion

So that vocal requesting program that I mentioned? B is blowing our socks off! He is repeating EVERYTHING right now. He still has a long, long way to go of course but it's pretty exciting given where we were until very recently. Today, he had a break from 11-12 so I seized the opportunity to get him out of the house. My PCA and I took the boys for pizza at Target (not much you can do in an hour when it's HOT outside). B was excited to be there but started to cry when the pizza was in front of him. I think he thought it was going to be hot. So, he looks at me and says "take a bite" TWICE. I have a witness. After I took a bite, he dove in and polished off the whole thing. Those 3 words are crazy cool for a couple of reasons. 1) THREE words: that's a sentence in my book. 2) I didn't model it for him. I said "bite?" and he came back with a full sentence.  I'm sure he was echoing what I have said a million times to him when giving him food.

Tonight, we were watching Toy Story 3 and I kept pausing it and saying a word. EVERY single time, he pointed and repeated it as closely as he could. Even new words for him. This seems like such a simple thing but it is not something he could do. Not even close. In the past, he would've either totally ignored me or cried.

This next week is going to focus even harder on his language because, as our team leader put it, his language is "exploding" right now. Woo hoo!!

It's particularly cool that this is coming off of such an intensive period of potty training. Typically you don't see a big acceleration in another area when something is focused on so heavily.

On the (unfortunate) flip side, we have one other big area to focus on as a result of the intense potty-training time-out from therapy. B's stereotypy & stim behaviors are OUT OF CONTROL! Left to his own devices, he would happily run directionless for hours on end while flailing his body and singing or laughing. It has become increasingly difficult to get him engaged which hurts his progress.

So this week we focus on those two things and see what happens. He does have a 3 day weekend without therapy so that may factor in too.

But did I mention that he is having a LANGUAGE EXPLOSION???? GOOOOO B!