Reading?

That B. is a mysterious little dude. It is beyond obvious that he knows so much more than he demonstrates. It's all on his terms. If he doesn't want to do something, well then he just doesn't do it. We see glimpses of this all the time but there are two big areas lately. One is letter recognition. We are teaching him his letters in the same way we teach everything. Practice. Practice. Practice. And then practice some more. He's doing pretty well but he stumbles and it requires a lot of teaching. But then he'll sit down with another activity where he is just copying a word in plastic letters. And he will say each and every letter as he goes. "Girl. G-I-R-L." Yet, he doesn't "know" all these letters.

The other area is reading. I think it was over a year ago that he first "read" a Thomas book. Word for word. Out of the blue. I even caught it on video. It was amazing and fascinating but he has never done it again with any other book. He is showing a lot of interest in books lately. A LOT of interest. He sits and flips through them. And he has listened to books on cd and somewhat followed along. And the most random of all - I held up a book for him and he said "Nick" which was the author's name and printed on the front. And today, he looked over at a DVD that had a sticky note with his dad's name on it and said (read?) "Doug".

So who knows? Maybe he is reading and just doesn't feel the need to let us in on this huge little secret. Maybe it's coincidence. Neither scenario would really shock me. I guess we'll do what we do with everything else. Wait as patiently as we can and appreciate the slow and steady progress as it comes.

We just invested in an app for our Ipad that will serve as an augmentative communication device for B. We're hoping it unlocks his language and helps him to communicate better. Time will tell.

One thing is clear. We haven't scratched the surface of this boy's capabilities. And someday, on B's terms, when he's ready, he'll let us in on some of his secrets.