Starbucks Cake Makes Me Happy!

You may see me eating at Starbucks a little more often than I already do. This is because John has verbalized to me (without prompting) that Starbucks cake makes him happy! His class ended early and we had some time to waste between that and another appointment, so we stopped by Starbucks and I got him a Cinnamon Swirl Coffee Cake. He kept saying "starbucks cake makes" and then something that I couldn't understand. When I told him I didn't get it, he did the sign language for happy and touched his cheeks and smiled. I've told so many people (in front of him) that he did this, so now he uses it a lot! :)

I've asked him what else makes him happy (he still can't say the hard "e" sound, so it comes out "happ-n"). So far, elevators make him "happ-n" and city buses make him "happ-n".

Driving in the car is a 'talkative' experience for John now. He points out gas stations, the post office, every city bus that drives by (which if you pay attention is A LOT), school buses (which are different from city buses and John is proud -- "skool bus --dellow (yellow)"), as well as green lights and red lights, "big guck" (big truck), car (with a Boston accent), and don't forget all of the important places like Target and McDonalds. ("McDonals other way")

I can't tell you how "happ-n" it makes me to see John express himself through language. In March of this year, I would have thought it impossible to improve this much, not only his vocabulary, but his cognitive speech. His understanding that green and red lights have different meanings ("go, go, go" and "tops" -- he puts the s at the end instead of the beginning), that city buses and different from school buses, and that Starbucks cake makes him happy are just a few examples on how far we've come in such a little time.

I asked the kids where they wanted to go for lunch the other day and John said Carls Jr. (which he just learned recently was different from McDonalds) I told him "later", which right now works really good to get him to move on from something. So, today, I asked the kids where we should go to lunch and John said "Carls Jr., Des." "Des" is Yes. So, I told him we could do that today. He smiled, "carls jr. des".

Again, to anyone that is considering early intervention, or to those that know something is wrong, but are having a hard time admitting it, let me tell you that the gains are so worth it!

To look at John's face and see him not only use language to fulfill immediate needs or label an object, but to see him express feelings is worth all the hard work. Looking back to March of this year, when John could only say 2 words that were clear, and testing at a 17 month cognitive level (when he was 30 months old), I am SO grateful for the services we are receiving. The 'formula' of services that John is getting is working and I'm so grateful that "starbucks cake makes him happy"!