Conversations here we come!

I had the most amazing conversation with Nathan today! We were doing our usual question-answer dance where he would accurately answer my “yes or no” or “Do you…” questions.
But this time, I left more open-ended questions like, “(in our vacation) what was Lola Elvie doing?” He accurately answered “sweeping the floor.” I asked if he remembered the goats in Tita Fevi’s house, then challenged him further by asking their colours. He accurately recalled the colours of the 2 goats: brown and white. He remembered 3 out of 4 names of the dogs. He remembered we got there by plane! Before we ended our 30-minute conversation, Nathan reminded me, “Do you remember the tractor? I remember the tractor!” Like as if he was saying, “Don’t forget the tractor, that was my favourite ride!”  
Nathan’s conversation skills has been evolving for quite some time now….well, a long long time now. 

First it felt like I was part of his verbal stiming, which I was happily encouraged. I would ask him questions and he would use it as a opportunity to practice restructuring the sentence to give me the correct answer. Example, I would say “Do you remember Crystal?” Nathan would accurately answer, “I remember Crystal.” But I would be unsure if his answer was how he really felt or his priority was to return the answer to me in perfect answer-form, which he did so amazingly! And that was fine with me!

In time, it became less of a stim and more intentionally answering. I could see him processing his thoughts and if he really didn’t remember a person, he would stop and not echo back in answer-form. He was giving me more accurate, processed thoughts.
Today he gave me more! He gave me so much more information than I was asking for! Conversations with Nathan, here we come! Praying for continued progress.

I didn’t run off to try to capture a video. I knew that would ruin the amazing conversation we were having. But I did grab my phone after and try to get him to sing a duet with me…one of my favourite things to do with him. Here it is.