Jonah, verbal word play, and imitation.

This is a toy that has been around forever in our house, but Jonah recently learned to turn it on.

The first day he had it on, he would cover his ears when it played anything… but he would continue flipping all the buttons.

By the 2nd day, he was singing along with them, even attempting to match the “silly” voices.

When Jonah is outside, he will hear a dog barking and attempt to imitate it… he does a REMARKABLY good job, even “barking” in the same pitch…

Other times, I’ve heard him “shrieking” outside… I figured it is just a vocal stim (sometimes it is) but then, when I listen closely, he is imitating a bird’s call he is hearing (again matching the pitch).

He is also fascinated with the sound of crying/whining children. He always has been. So there are even times when he will IMITATE the sound of one of his classmates whining… and THEN imitate his teacher’s response!

I love how imitation has become second nature to him. It was just over a year ago when the concept of imitation was still hard for him to grasp.

This is something we have worked very VERY hard on over the last year or so.