does anyones kids "talk"?  lilliana doesnt say words but we're pretty sure she understand us.  if you ask a question do they "respond"? if we ask "how big is Lilliana"? she raises her arms halfway up.

paul understand me and my husband he mimics us if we moan or groan he does the same exact sound as us the ST says he knows his vowels more than letters he is very talkative thought in a moaning groaning way

As for Sarp he used to say 3 words since 5 months. We can not accelerate it but he stilll eager to be resposive. One of the word is the word that a baby tells from very early time. We learnt it from his twin :) "Au" the other is "Heu" and the other is a continous "a --a--a--a" when he tries to tell something. I thing we stll need some time to develop it.

However Sarp can not smile when he is awake. We saw him smiling only in the period when he is just going to sleep but still awake. But we can understand that he is happy when he tells one of the words we thought to him. He really enjoys to try to tell those words.

Bihter

If we say Hi to Kyle he will make a hi sound in response.  He will also smile when we ask can you smile for me.  Like the others he likes to take turns in making a response to a work.

Celeste is able to communicate fairly well. She uses eye blinks and eye shift. She will blink for yes and shift her eyes side to side for no. She has been doing this since she was about 2 years old.

She is also fairly vocal, in that she makes lots of happy noises and giggles. Sometimes she 'sings' with her sister and howls with the dogs. She also moans or complains when she is sick or unhappy.

I am absolutely sure she understands what is going on around her. She laugs at jokes (and her sister) appropriately and uses her eye blinks to answer yes and no questions. She smiles at things she likes, and looks away or won't look at things she doesn't. All of these things are subtle, due to her extreme physical limitations, but if you know what to look for they are there :)

Declan is doing very well with receptive language while he still struggles with traditional verbal language.  He does attempt to repeat words such as Hi, Meow and Jack (our cat), but as the consonents are very difficult for him, the sounds are more like "eow" and "ack" but we know what he means.  We are working with Meyer-Johnson symbols along with Eye Gaze and Pointing to make choices and better communicate his thoughts to us.  I feel likke it is very slow for me some days but we are still working on this and I think Celeste's mom put it very well,  sometimes the signs are subtle, due to their extreme physical limitations, but if you know what to look for they are there.  Try to build on whatever works best for you.  -Lara