When Jonah was diagnosed a little over a year ago he could say one word. “done.” And he only used it in one situation (when he wanted out of the seat he was strapped in to for meals).

Today, Jojo is very slowly learning word sounds and impressions of words. He has a good grasp of word shaping and using small phrases, but very little in the way of the usage of meaningful dialogue.

He very rarely uses what he has learned outside of the learning environment.

Though he will sometimes respond verbally when prompted (usually via scripting or echolalia), he relies almost exclusively on non-verbal communication. He still leads by the hand. He prefers to ‘show us’ what he wants as opposed to ‘asking’ or ‘telling’ us.

Don’t get me wrong, he is leaps and BOUNDS farther then where we were a year ago, but we still have to decipher his unique language.

And almost none of it actually involves understanding his words.

Love this from Autism. From a dad’s eye view

Original Facebook Post.