What a difference a day makes

One day definitely didn't make that much of a difference but it most definitely helps. Yesterday Jonathan moved up to the next class - Toddlers room with Miss Deb. Oh we love miss Deb! She's creative, fun, easy going, cooperative, patient, understanding, and supportive. Jonathan's speech has been increasing each day. He's really trying hard to communicate and attempting to repeat harder words when asked. When we first started speech Miss Deb was very supportive and curious to know his progress, even though he wasn't in her room she made a point of asking how he was doing. I credit a lot of his expanding vocab reading books such as:

What Do I See? is an amazing book - I highly recommend it. It has small, simple words, it's repetitive, and it's predictable. Exactly what Jonathan needs right now to promote his speech. He loves Brown Bear, Brown Bear and Good Night Moon for the same exact reason. He can name the animals and their colors as well as find the objects being read. It's just a great transformation that's taking place. Don't get me wrong, he's still not taking in full sentences or even many 3+ word phrases, but he's becoming more and more confident and that is the most important thing of all.

As for his first day with the Toddlers (ages 2.5 to 3.5) he did better than we thought he would do. Apparently he needed quite a bit of redirection but when redirected he focused well. The Pre-Toddler room is 18 months to 2.5 years so structured play and class time was few and far between. He loves the other boys in his class and has a great time playing. I'm so excited for this move. Jonathan needs those bigger kids as a role model to show him that he can talk, he can communicate, and that he can ask questions. Over the summer he'll go 2x a week and we'll keep busy traveling to state parks and lakes on the other days. We're planning on taking a parent and me swim class as well. Lots planned for 6 weeks summer vacation!