Just a quick story from a treatment session that warmed my heart…
I’ve been providing speech therapy for this child for approximately 2 months. He’s about 2 1/2 and his parents are dedicated to his language development. This little guy did not initially have any sounds or true words when we started therapy. He rarely made eye contact or used any communicative gestures (ie., pointing, using a sign) to request (some of the things that are essential to language development.) With the implementation of some good strategies at home, this little guy is starting to babble, use the “more” sign, point and consistently looks at his momma and daddy in the eyes.
During this particular session, we were rolling a ball back and forth with each other (a good turn-taking activity) and I was using simple language to narrate what we were doing. It went something like this:
Me: Ball. Roll the ball. Ball.
[roll the ball to little guy.]
Little Guy: dasidamapodi (babbling)
[rolled the ball back to me.]
Me: Ball. Gimme ball?
[held the ball up towards my eyes and waited for little guy to make eye contact.]
Little Guy: BA!
I almost peed my pants with excitement. Little guy said /ba/ for “ball” three times during the session-his first true word. It took everything in me restrain myself from hugging his dad and crying.
…it was a good day 
-baby.babbler
Great posts – very clear – keep it up!