“Say wha!?!?” That’s what I feel like most days trying to decipher what my son is trying to say but this week we have seen a noticeable difference in my sons communication skills. I would say around the first week of therapy Killi would sometimes say “dadadadada” that was about it and it was few and far between. At this beginning stage in the ESDM therapy, we have been working on going to Killi’s “spot light” and narrating everything that is going on with a few very simple terms and it is finally paying off.

Instead of a monotone “dadadadada”, we now hear a lot of other consonants and vowels with different tones and inflection. I’m convinced my son is a genius and is actually speaking Mandarin but as you know I don’t speak Mandarin so I have no clue what he is saying… Well maybe it’s Japanese…

As the weeks have gone by, he has said a few words here and there but now by week six we are consistently, clearly, and in the proper context saying “up”, “hi”, “no”, “bye”, “go”, “please”, “daddy”. And as of last week he has been saying “momma”, I have missed this so much! It started as “maw” whenever he needed me he would take my hand and say “mawww” but now he is saying “momma” (yes it’s all the time and yes I am sure it will drive me nuts very soon but for this moment it’s pretty exciting). He can also combine the few words he does say. The other day our nanny tried to play with him but I was in the room and Killi looked at her and said “Nooooo! Momma momma!” It didn’t hurt anyone’s feelings because we were so excited he combined two words!!

The big kicker was over the weekend, I had given Killi his rice bucket to play with. He was having so much fun and then all of a sudden I hear the rice pour all over the floor with a hundred little “tick ticks” sounds and a huge mess for mommy to clean up. I would have been a little annoyed but my son looked me in the eyes with a huge smile and said his first sentence: “I did it!”

My jaw dropped and with tears filling my eyes all I could say was “That’s right baby! You did it!” How could I even be annoyed there was a mess to clean up when I heard my sons first full sentence.

It’s the little things, just hearing what I think is a new word coming out of his mouth makes all of this hard work, day in and day out, all worth while. This isn’t easy, but having the support of a great doctor, friends that constantly check on us to see how we are doing, and your prayers make this a lot more manageable!

Until next week….