Xander has been going to pre-school for a year! hooray!
at one of our first meetings at the school, they asked me what i wanted my goals to be. i told them, something to the effect of, "i want to be able to ask Xander how his day was, and have him be able to respond."
prior to his pre-school days most questions were responded to with a yell/scream, or a lengthy string of garbled-up-gook that was very hard to understand (if not impossible). and if he did have anything coherent to say, it was usually "scripted" phrases.
now, a year later, he still may yell/scream at times but we are understanding 90% of what he says and he will generally respond to questions when asked. (i can even ask him "what did you do today" and get an excellent response!)
two days ago, i asked him to tell me a story. and this is what we got:
maybe you won't think this is as big a deal as i do, but to me this is a huge success.
independent thought. creative thinking. 100% unscripted.
thanks to all of Xander's "ladies" who work so hard for him! you know who you are!