real imitation - verbal

You know, looking back about a month or 2 ago, I think I was just really hopeful. Holden would occassionally imitate a sound, or would just come out with more sounds on his own. I thought to myself ... "he's improving, he's really improving!". But, today it just a whole other level. This morning in ABA, they told me he was more verbal than he's ever been. They were able to get a number of echoics from him. Not just 1 or 2, but like 4 or 5, which is huge. So, then he had speech and she hasn't seen him in over a week. She commented on how she couldn't believe the difference in just a week.

And it's true. It's crazy. Now, I can with-hold things like his drink (cup), his binkie (bee-bee), and anything else I want and ask him to say something and he does! For the most part anyway. For example:

me: "say mama"
Holden: "maaa-maaa"

me: "holden, say ba-ba"
Holden: "ba-ba"

me: "holden, say eeeeeat"
Holden: "eeeat!"

He's also doing a lot more gross motor imitation. Things he hasn't been shown before. When I ask him to show me his ear (they've been working on head and nose), it takes him a minute, but then he points to his ear.

I don't know what it is. As usual, it could be a combo of things. I honestly think that the chelation IV we did in January got the ball rolling. Then, I stated TMG about 2 weeks ago and I'm just now up to the therapeautic dose. I think that has got to be what's kickstarted his speech as much as it has.

To see improvements like this ... real progress. I can't tell you how good it feels. I'm crossing my fingers and toes and hairs that it will just continue.