Update #6

I won't make this update long as there has only been a couple of really "new" things that have emerged over the last couple weeks. That is not to say he hasn't made continual improvement across the board in things he has been learning. But these two examples are more "new"!

This week Blake has started commenting while watching TV shows. We have limited the TV greatly these past few months, but when this momma needs a break or he is sick, we turn it on. He has made comments like, "It's dark!", "The kids are going in rocket!", and "The friends are in trolly!" 

Commenting is new. Commenting comes later in the speech process, and I was made aware of that this week when signing Blake up for Speech camp this summer. The therapist said that the reason why Ms. Katie is working on "Boys vs. Girls" is because a child can not comment until they know that who they are commenting about is a boy or a girl. Think about that: you can't say, "Look at that boy mom!" or "Look at his jacket!" when you don't know who "HE" is. It makes complete sense. This is why I am thankful for speech therapy because I would have had no idea. And I was so upset that he was being taught the difference between boy and girl. This just shows how I do NOT know how language develops and I need to TRUST that they do. Blake finally has a concept of who other people are if he doesn't know their names.  They can be boys, girls, kids, people.... this has helped him a lot! 

Blake has started calling Kade by some nick names. When he sees Kade, he will say, "Hi Kade Man!" or "Stop that Kade Monster." He even talked to Matt on the phone and said, "HI BOY!" with so much enthusiasm it cracked us up.  

As kids develop language, they will start interchanging words for other words. I had mentioned a few posts ago that Blake had started using words like "grab" instead of "hold" and replacing other words when I would have him repeat my sentence with words that meant the same thing. It shows he understands language as being somewhat "creative", and that there doesn't have to be just ONE way to say something.

Blake has started taking on the role of other people and animals. He has not done this before unless he was copying another child or us. This week he has walked around pretending to be a cow, horse, rabbit, frog, and many other animals. Tonight he told me, "I'm a space alien!" which he got from Daniel Tiger.

This goes back almost to the previous thing with interchanging words with similar words with the same meanings. Our therapists said that imaginative play and creativity in language can't come until he can see that things don't have to be exactly what they are. The fact that he is taking on different roles and pretending is HUGE. This week I feel like I've seen about 4 days in a row where I feel a page has turned. I pray it sticks and that we just keep flipping those pages right along.