Just like the Spice Girls sang many years ago, I have been begging Matty to tell me what he wants. You see he is talking, slightly, he can say about 25 words and understands very well what we are saying to him. But he still whines and cries when he wants something. In the last several months we have been working feverishly to get him to communicate what he wants using words.
He is very excellent at asking for milk, juice, his blanket, and he usually communicates pretty well when he is hungry. But it is still a struggle half the time because he whines and cries rather than tries to talk to us. He has really made some big strides with his communicating in the last few weeks and last night was no exception. I was so excited about what he did!!
He went in to the kitchen and started whining. So I went in with him and asked him, "What do you want?" He then said, "Eat" and went over to his chair. So I put him in his chair and said, "Good job, you want to eat. What do you want to eat?" I have always asked him this question even when he was only 6 months old, it was simply a hypothetical question, I never really expected him to answer it. I usually give him a list of choices and he says "yes" to one of them, well actually he doesn't really say "yes" he says "yeah"- he is really polite and formal.
This time I asked him what he wanted to eat and then I gave him a list, "Yogurt?" He said, "no". Then I asked him if he wanted grapes and he said "no.... apple." I said, "You want an apple?" He then said, "Yeah, apple." As soon as I picked my chin off the floor, I got him an apple and cut it up for him and he happily ate it.
For the first time he told me specifically what he wanted to eat. It was amazing!! I can really get used to this communication thing...it made my life so easy!! It was a very small accomplishment, but it was an accomplishment none the less and I was so proud of him for it.
That's awesome, Erica. Way to go, Matty!!
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