JT has been doing awesome... While he's not requesting things consistently, he does at times. Yay!
He sat on the potty this past weekend - once because I put him there and once he just climbed on. He labels everything, and will repeat words often.

He pretends to be a monkey (saying oo oo aa aa and jumping around) walks around making an elephant noise and holding a toy elephant (he occasionally says eh-fun).

Right now he's on the floor pushing his car around saying car and coo(l).

He plays with baby dolls - he has one in a carrier and says beebee... Makes it kiss other babies... Then tries to get in the carrier too.

Pretend and appropriate play - HUGE!

I love looking back at all he's accomplished since his eval in March of 2007. At that point, they said MR (mental retardation) was possible/likely. I no longer believe that's an issue.

I honestly don't know what made the difference for JT. One day last December, he taught himself the alphabet with a wooden puzzle. since then he has been ON FIRE! Surely school has fed that progress - he learns so much there (and gets to play with other kids). We didn't change his diet or feed him supplements. We didn't start any sort of therapy. He just started really progressing.

On my support board, we discuss things like this constantly. I think children with autism progress no matter what you do - like any other kid! Diets and supplements only work if the child has a deficiency or allergy - its not magic (we tried the diet... JT must be fine, because there was no change).

Anyway, off the soapbox. :)

Hooray for JT and super hooray for the continued progress. We are so blessed!