VIDBE-Q Volume 66 Issue 4
and at home. He is picking up job responsibilities at school and his team is
allowing him to contribute which will make him successful. He uses a lot more
language than ever before and is a master of communicating his wants and needs.
Eddie still has hard days where expression does not come easily. He wakes
up agitated for reasons he cannot articulate and we cannot ascertain. However, we
see way more of the good days, like the days he wakes up singing to Johnny Cash.
The days he wants to go grocery shopping at H.E.B. with his Dad. The days he
wants to pick up banana bread and a root beer from his favorite fast food
restaurant, P.Terrys. The beautiful thing is that he can tell us what makes him
happy and we can make it happen, while teaching him something new along the
way.
A couple weeks ago, I was putting Eddie to bed and he was going through
his routine. All the usual things were happening in order as promised: bathroom,
medicine, bedtime stories on Spotify, and one more drink of water. As I was
putting Eddie to bed I told him, "Thank you for going to the bathroom." (As this is
something I often have to talk him into.) He then stopped before lying down in bed
and said to me, "Thank you for P. Terrys with me." Not just "thank you for P.
Terrys", but "with me." This was a first.
Eddie has always needed prompts to communicate. He needs his Dad to say,
"Tell Mom goodnight." He needs me to say, "Tell Dad thank you." He uses self-
