A Good Start

Torran picked up the phone and brought it to me whilst I was doing the online GC census.

"Would you like to call on the phone?" (meaning "I would like to call on the phone.")

We had our usual interchange, the learning opportunity being me modelling a pretend phone (he can do "pretend" on objects, but we're working on imaginary play without objects).

He opened his hand fully and said "a bigger phone"... obviously the kid wants a blackberry.

Then he took the phone off the seat where I'd placed it and walked away. I watched him observe himself in the reflection of a cabinet:

"Hi Grandma. How are you? Bye."

It's the first time he's ever had a "conversation" with an imaginary person on a phone. He's previously said "How are you?" once or maybe twice. But never bye.

So if he had a pretend blackberry, would he be surfing the net?

I think I'll have to get more visual tools for him, so he can better understand the concept of a phone. He's heard voices over the phone and recognizes either them or their pattern of speech (some people have specific "greetings" with which he identifies). I don't know that he actually realizes that there is someone on the other side of the phone.

I also started working, again, with making words and reading with him. However, that didn't go so well. Rather than work with letters alone, I'll have to integrate images here too and hope that will make a difference. At some point, he'll be expected to be able to read basic words. I know he associates symbols with various places, for example, grocery shopping is "the banana store" (No Frills). Flash cards? Fuzzy animals? Photos? I'm not sure which route to take.

But I don't expect him to be writing any PhD papers yet.