The monkey has been playing with his communication device. Every now and then, he likes to press a lot of buttons. At first, I didn’t like it. I didn’t want him to feel this is a game. But then I realized how will he be able to learn new words on his own? So, we let him press buttons as he looks at all of the word options.

We bought the monkey a cheap smart phone from Walmart, $15 last week. My husband said he sees us with our cell phones that maybe he would like one too. So, we bought him one. He likes to sit with us in our living room while we all watch tv, and he will watch cartoons on his phone.

This morning used his iPad and pressed the following: I want keyboard please.

I asked him. Keyboard?

Then he starts looking around and after a while he types: I want iPhone please.

Oh! You want your cell phone!

Yes.

Last night I put his phone on my nightstand so that it could charge. And this morning he was looking for it.

I cannot explain how excited I am about how he can use his words to communicate. He is finding his own way. Before he only had a limited options of words since he could only choose the ones I had installed on his device. But since this new app has so many options, well this just increases his communication!

I write this because I am so grateful and so proud of this kid. But also, to remind anyone out there that is currently struggling and doesn’t have hope, please remember us. We were in those shoes for years. Many times, we thought of stopping all therapies because we just didn’t see that it mattered. We didn’t see him advance at all. But what we didn’t realize is that we were forming his foundation.

So, keep going. Keep trying. There’s power in perseverance.