How was your day?

Every morning Robbie gets on the bus for school and I say "Have a great day!" Every afternoon he gets off and I ask " How was your day?." Silence is the only response as he heads inside the house. Everyday he will come in, take off his coat and hat, hang them up. Hang up his back pack. Sit down on the bench in the hallway and take off his shoes and socks. Then sit on the couch. I will go through his back pack to see if there are any crafts that should be hung up and read the notes from the teacher about his day. Some days he will ask for a movie. Most days I will ask him if he wants a snack or a juice. This has become our routine.

My question is- will Robbie ever answer. And I mean answer the question with a well thought out response- not just a programed response like the ones he is learning in ABA. ( Applied Analysis Therapy) He has started to acknowledge the bus driver when she says good bye. That is a step forward. There is still no actual conversation. He has to learn appropriate responses to questions. For example, it took weeks to teach him to answer the question- How old are you? His response- "I'm four"- and sometimes he says "I'm fork"- but he will hold up 4 fingers. I've been working on "I'm five" with him lately. He will be five in march. His response to the age question now is-"I'm five." Which his sister automatically corrects. "No Robbie is four, not five and I'm two. How old are you Mommy?" She will generally continue talking, and I love to hear it.

I don't know how you teach conversation. I don't think you can. That's the fear. If you can't teach something, Robbie will not learn it. However, you can't teach love, you can't teach caring and he has those abilities. Maybe he will learn casual conversation??