Friday, May 8, 2009

"I want popcorn"

So, at the last IEP meeting that was full of love, one of Ellie's new goals is to say sentences, or at least approximations thereof, multiple times in a day, every day for 4 weeks. WITHOUT PROMPTING. That means, I can't ask, "What do you want?" OR help her, by modeling.

So today, Ellie walks up to her Dad and says and signs, "popcorn." Dad replies, "Can you use a sentence?" Elllie, pauses and thinks for a second, "I want popcorn." Hooray! Dad makes popcorn and a smiling Ellie toddles off with her bowl of popcorn. She comes back a few minutes later with an empty bowl. She puts the empty bowl on the counter, and looks at me. I smile, and say, "Hi Ellie." She looks at me for a few seconds, and then says, "I want popcorn." WOW! Not a bit of prompting! So, I give her a high-five, and fill her bowl.

This gets repeated for a bit, and then, she even tells her Uncle Dave who has just arrived from Alaska, "I want popcorn." Wow!! She even translated it to an almost stranger. Later, she walked over to me with a DVD, Barbie in the Princess and the Pauper. I looked up and smiled. She handed me the DVD. I smiled again, and then waited. She looked at me and then a miracle happened. Ellie looked at me, and signed and said, "I want Pauper." Clearly! "I want Pauper!"

So, not only could she ask, without any prompting, for some yummy food, but also she could ask for a movie. Without ANY prompting. This is some amazing stuff. This is what I expect from a typical 4 year old. I am going to encourage this. Yes, honey, you can eat all the popcorn you ask for.

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