“Coat Off” and “Ezra Black Keats”

It's been a while since I've posted, and I'm quite thankful to report that the echoing of my name has vanished, for those of you who have asked. Thanks for checking in.

We continue with the intense Verbal Behavior therapy 32 hours/week, the Methyl B-12 injections and the detox-ing, and we also continue to see slow but steady improvements in behavior as well as expressive and receptive language skills. It is SO totally cool. Two very fun things came out of T's mouth today which I just had to share.

First: T has been able to request and label the action "coat off" for quite some time. This winter, he has a new coat which not only zips up but Velcro-s shut as well (fancy coat!) T is not yet able to open up the Velcro to access the zipper. Each time he wants to take off his coat, he'll look at me, reach to my hands and say "coat off." Today, because it is so blasted COLD, I switched up the usual coming-home routine by taking Chester outside before I had taken my coat off and had assisted T with his. I usually throw a frizbee to Chester, since he's been home all day without us around, so I took a few moments to play with him. After about a minute, T opened the back screen door, peeked around at me with his coat still on, and said "Coat off!" It was such a TYPICAL kid moment…as if to say "Hey Mom, you forgot something!" I laughed and came inside to help, and gave him a big hug for using words to ask me for help.

Second: Rob has been terrific about telling T the author and illustrator of the children's books he reads to him. T can now name the author of the small library of books he will allow us to read to him – very cool. One of his favorites from a few years ago, The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats had been, until recently, shunned from his list of Allowable Reads. I'm glad to report that is has now been deemed acceptable to read it to him again. He likes it so much again that the author has become part of his echolalic repertoire, but with a fun, sweet and decidedly appropriate twist: he says "Ezra Black Keats". Gently, I try to correct him, but he is convinced, it's stuck, and now when we walk around the grocery or are on other errands, he'll flip his fingers and say "Ezra Black Keats." I just have to smile.