Just When You Think

If anyone believes in Cotton its' me and his dad. We know how much he can do, and what a sweet little boy he is. Even though he rarely shows his "true personality" in public. It took his speech pathologist (school) a year to realize that he did not just sit there and stare at a wall. She told me that she had gone into the classroom, and could not believe that this was the same kid. Personally, I believe that speech therapy should be done in the class, and on the playground, but you've got to work with what you have, and fortunately we also have private speech therapy:)

But, Cotton still continues to surprise us. I have to admit there are times when I just say, he simply does not understand this (whatever this is). Every once in a while, we get a window into how much he really knows. For example homework usually takes about an hour and a half for ONE worksheet. This is the part where Cotton stares at the wall. Then, out of the blue he will answer all the questions, without missing a beat. Today he was repeating OVER and OVER on his talker, "Birthday want to swim (friend's name). This friend always has his birthday party at an indoor pool in January and Cotton is already excited:) Anyway, I said no, we are going to church, no swimming today. Then he said "Jonah want to swim." At first I thought that was really clever, and I was proud he had made that connection. After I thought about it, I realized that there was no way Cotton could say "Jonah" on his talker. I asked him to say Jonah want to swim on his taker again. Sure enough he had typed it!!! This is so amazing for us, he can really say all the things he wants to say and opens up a new world of spontaneous communication!!