HUGE Breakthrough!

Both of Sam's seasoned communication partners are on vacation and I've only done it three times before and today would be the first time without anyone else there to prompt Sam with pie. But I didn't want him to miss a lesson so I just told him I'd try being the CP and Pie Lady at the same time and he smiled and seemed agreeable. Well, he ROCKED the lesson on earthworms! He was just as initiated and accurate as he was with Lisa on Tuesday! And the pie thing worked great! I placed the pie on the table in front of us and he would just point neatly to the dish of pie after each word!!

This was not a lesson I had written or studied ahead of time, and I was even able to come up with some semi-open-ended questions on the fly! Sam only got up once and it was because he was poopy so I changed him and then we went back to our lesson. The only word I told him how to spell ahead of time was "AERATE". He spelled:

WORM, DARWIN, PLANET, DINOSAUR, EARTHWORM, RECYCLE, FERTILIZING, EATING, POOPING, WORM CAST, PLANTS, VERMICOMPOST, TOMATOES, STRAWBERRIES, ENGINEER, AERATE, FERTILE, FLOODING, EROSION, BAROMETER, HEALTH, DEFORESTATION, BIRD, REPAIR, LIVE ON THE PLANET

What is worm cast beneficial for? PLANTS

Spell one pollutant of soil (starts on the same board), pesticide or metal: METAL

What does contaminate mean? POLLUTE (prior knowledge)

Name a synonym for ally: FRIEND

But the icing on the cake was, he had such good momentum and we were both having so much fun that I thought of a way to let him tell me what he wanted for dinner. Because they all start on the same board, I asked him if he wanted BEEF, BACON, or CHICKEN for dinner. He wouldn't point to any of them so I thought, hmmmm, maybe he wants sausage so I asked him to AFFIRM or DENY that he wanted sausage instead. He selected DENY. So then I went back to my original question and he spelled BACON! Since the next choices were also on the same boards, he was also able to choose his starch and vegetable!

Do you want rice or pasta with it? RICE

Do you want spinach or zucchini? ZUCCHINI 

This is so exciting and empowering for both of us!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!