Santino and I had several 'WOW' moments today! He started out in an excellent, jovial mood and was exceptionally engaged with me. He was particularly demonstrative, expressive, and communicative of his mood and desires by sustaining eye contact, and through vocalizations, and gestures, and he was very responsive to my imitations of his speech and vocalizations – giggling and repeating after me while holding my gaze. He also gave me a hug and laid his head against my chest, smiling the whole while. Santino grabbed my arms and placed them around him, embracing me in a hug. This then turned into a tickling interaction, which he initiated by uttering some vocalizations, which I repeated, he found funny and repeated, and waited for me to then repeat it. This dynamic was an incredibly engaging, interactive and responsive means of communication and was witnessed by his previous tutor, who was equally excited to witness his significant gains. I was very happy to see Santino dressed in light long pants today, as had been requested, and his bites looked much less irritated. It seems that the antibiotic cream helped, and we will keep applying the insect repellent if outdoors. After using the visual communication board to plan out and communicate the plan for the day, Santino and I began with a musical activity involving instruments. Santino examined a guitar, plucked its strings, examined it from different angles, and held it appropriately. I strummed a few chords and paired words with them, making every effort to mimic the cadence of his vocalizations and connect them to words phrases repeatedly used (e.g., hello, thank you, etc.). After exposing Santino to certain words repeatedly, I set up temptations to encourage him to elicit the word. For example, I placed the guitar out of Santino’s reach so he can see it but not reach it. When Santino reached for it, I said, “What? What do you want?” and then gave him a sufficient amount of time to say it himself. After the wait, I modeled the word as a question, and asked, "Do you want the guitar?" while pointing to it and to a picture of a guitar. Although Santino did not request the guitar verbally, I modeled the word again and gave it to him. Since I’ve heard Santino say the word ‘guitar’ it’s not a question of poor speech production. With time and patience, I anticipate seeing more gains in functional language, especially as his receptivity to following directives and responsiveness has been showing such marked signs of improvement. The last 15 minutes of the session, we proceeded outdoors with another student who has been engaging nicely with Santino. They’ve established greeting one another with a high five, and they share equipment together (e.g., the see saw). Santino finished up the day by washing his hands with soap and water. He used the towel more efficiently to dry his hands. He also enjoyed when I put some water on his lips and indicated he wanted me to do this more. I complied with his request and our session ended on as happy a note as which it began. I shared our success with Ingrid and Santino gave her a warm hug, a high five and huge smile. It simply made my day!