Santino was brought in by his mom today and was in good spirits. We put his book bag away in the classroom and used the communication board to demonstrate the activity line up of the day. Santino assembled puzzles that contained items that were in the story. He was prompted to pick up the puzzle piece that corresponded to the animal, item, or object mentioned in the story. His favorite puzzle continues to be the one corresponding to The Three Little Pigs. Santino will play that one repeatedly and occasionally repeat words or phrases. He is afforded high fives and thumbs up for such elicitations even though they are random and arbitrary. We also followed the lines to The Wheels on the Bus, with Santino mimicking some of my movements, such as turning a wheel or the swishing of windshield wipers. His performance as yet remains dependent on the provision of physical prompts to meet this objective. We got some playtime in on the playground, which Santino greatly enjoys, following which we washed our hands thoroughly in the sink. During this activity, I presented Santino with a Dixie cup full of water with a small rim, and I brought it to his lower lip. After breaking the task down into smaller steps (task analysis), I proceeded to tip the cup so that a small amount entered his mouth and he closed his lips to retain and swallow the water. Although Santino did not hold the cup with his hands, he demonstrated the correct oral steps necessary to appropriately draw water into his mouth and swallow. I then placed the cup on the table and stated that it was there if he wanted to drink more. We practiced this exercise 6 times, with Santino drinking from the cup without protesting each time. He did not pick up the cup himself, but the fact that he drank water from a cup held to his lips was a significant advancement. When his nanny, Ingrid, arrived to pick him up, I showed her one of the three videos I had taken and we both lavished Santino with praises, hugs, high fives, and thumbs up signs for the performance and milestone he achieved. Santino was demonstrably happy. Today was an extremely productive and gratifying day.