Little R's progress

Hi, Everyone!

Little R made me very proud yesterday when without a motivator (reinforcer) demonstrated that he knew a LOT more than we knew that he knew.

He met his new speech path for the first time (she taking over for Little R's previous speech path who just had a baby), and he performed incredibly well! So, what am I talking about? Let me highlight with some bullets...

• good eye contact - he wanted grapes so he looked at the jar of grapes, looked at me and then led my hand toward it (okay, this is not really new, but his new speech path - let's just call her Erin, pointed out that this was purposeful eye contact, very taken-for-granted non verbal communication skill that we all use)
• from a choice board of about 10 or more items, he chose the picture of a school bus, and it was exactly what he wanted (this is called choice making - might sound easy to you, but we've spent months and months working on it!)
• when Erin asked if he wanted a duck (as he was holding and looking at the PIC), he said "no" clearly accompanied by shaking his head to emphasize his reply was true - he's been saying "yes" (sounds like "lesh") to most things, so we're glad that he CAN differentiate the two concepts
• he indicated he had to go pee verbally! Of course it was assisted by the dancing and clutching of the penis
• when Eric asked showed him a book with many different pictures and asked him "show me what you drink out of", Little R pointed (well, he touched) the picture of a glass. When she asked "show me what you ride on", he touched the tricycle... he just didn't know "show me what you cook with" - he was supposed to touch frying pan but didn't know it yet
• he understood the present continuous participle, in other words "ing" endings like "show me sleeping, playing, drinking, eating" - he got them all correct!
• he was able to pronounce "apple" clearly! Unfortunately now he's been saying "apple" for the word "open", so what we have to do is not open until he says "open".
• he left said "bye bye" to Erin and waved when we were leaving
• he was able to turn take with Erin and do play how she was trying to play with him (turn taking is another thing we take for granted but is VERY important in social situations)

Wow. I'm really happy to see this progress.

Did I mention that we were doing his SCD/GAPS diet wrong? We were supposed to feed him a lot beef, but he was mostly eating chicken all the time. I remember last year DH said to a CDA friend of mine, "If I have to feed him a cow, I'll feed him a cow." It's really strange from going from no meat to meat EVERY DAY. We are forever grateful to these animals.

Oh, and another thing. Little R has been calling DH by his first name and not "Daddy" - which I find might be more functional. I mean, in a sea of dads if someone asks him "who's Daddy?" Little R can respond perfectly well.

So, what do you think? Is it the diet that's helping? Is it the Verbal ABA? Is it his sister who is learning and demonstrating SO much language right now?

Have a great day, Everyone!