Echo (echo)

A has, since Thursday of last week (the 15th), started repeating things that he hears with regularity. This is great, because he's actually speaking, but it is also difficult because he generally repeats the last word or few words of the last thing he hears.

The technical term is "echolalia", and it's a common thing with autistic kids. We might ask him, "What do you want? Apple or banana?" and he would say the phrase "apple or banana", instead of specifying which one he wants. For prayers before bed, he repeats the last word of every sentence. Also, Sesame Street is brought to you by the "corpation of pub-ick bodcasting" and viewers "like yooooou."

At the same time, it is good for labeling if we hold up an apple and say "apple" and he repeats it while looking at it. Reinforcement. We'll see where it goes from here!

On a brighter note, his sister K turns one tomorrow on the 22nd. She's already got walking down pat (and has for a month and a half), has nearly mastered going up and down stairs on her knees, and tells her brother to "gop" (stop) when he's sitting on her or annoying her. She's a climber and into EVERYTHING. She's also figured out that if she wrenches the cabinet doors open far enough, she can still reach some things despite the safety catches. Because her arm is smaller than the gap. She's still a teeny one: at our WIC re-certification on Monday, she weighed 19.9 pounds with clothes and sneakers. But she is growing steadily at the same rate she has been since she was born, so they're not worried about it and neither am I. She gets shots on Friday (oh, joy) just before Daddy comes home on Saturday and grandparents arrive on Sunday. She is also rather vocal and screams just for the pure pleasure of making noise. K will let out a shriek that sounds like we're torturing her, smile really big, and then shriek again as she toddles through the house.