Yes?

The boy has started responding more proactively when his name is called.

Before, when we call his name, he will just look at us and wait for what we have to say to him.

For a few days now, I actually heard him say 'yes' consistently after I call his name.

As in I will say, "Javier?"
And then he will say, "Yes?" with the appropriate tone and curious facial expression.

One new response from him can make me so happy.

We also started going to a new speech therapist from a private institution. Sadly, there is not enough support from government-funded institutions. Either they lack the skilled people or the infrastructure, or both. Sadly, none of the insurance companies cover any of the therapies, and for this, parents of special needs kids have an additional thing to worry about.

But anyway, I am digressing. I am not here to tell you about my worries. I would like to assure you that I see small improvements in the boy.  His vocabulary has increased and his articulation is very good. He can communicate what he wants to say and he is able to give simple responses to "Why?" questions.

Next step is for him to be able to elaborate his responses to the why-questions. Right now, he can tell you why he is crying ("Because I am sad."), but he is still not able to elaborate what it is that made him sad.

Another task is for us to make his imagination bloom. The speech therapist suggested simple guessing games where we need to provide descriptions to an object and he needs to guess what this object is.

A lot of things to work on. I pray that the boy welcomes these new activities that I will introduce in the coming days.