Increasing requests/Chuck E. Cheese

I was sitting on a small ottoman  that was next to our couch but clearly not in its regular spot. Nikko came up behind me, started pushing on my back and said, "Stand up! Stand up!" He wanted me to move, so I did. Nikko doesn't usually command anything via action verb; instead, he requests via noun e.g. "Apple juice" or "Striped cookie."

We've also been watching the Your Baby Can Read DVD series with the kids, as I mentioned before, and now Nikko requests to watch the "Homework DVD." He is doing a good job of retaining what he sees.

Finally, today (Sunday) we took the kids to Chuck E. Cheese's for two separate birthday parties. Nikko's classmate Matthew invited him, and I had a chance to talk to the mom. She sometimes volunteers in their Kindergarten class so she knew about Nikko's speech delays, and Matthew supposedly talks about Nikko and said that he uses sign language. She was so kind that she invited Nikko to come over for a playdate anytime. I thought that was incredibly generous of this mom. I was happy to see a few of Nikko's Kindergarten classmates walk by Nikko and say hello, even if he didn't say hello back. In particular I noticed a friendly girl named Corinne, Matthew himself, a friendly kid named Jack, and a boy Nathan who didn't mind that Nikko sat next to him at the table. Nikko didn't really care for any of the video games. Instead, he enjoyed climbing up an indoor jungle gym and scurrying through some tunnels secured to the ceiling. It truly reminded me of a hamster run. I stood near the end of a slide to make sure he didn't get caught in the tunnels and freak out. Nikko actually fared really well and checked to make sure I was still standing at the same spot whenever he resurfaced.