By their first birthday most babies know exactly whom they mean when they say, “Mama.” But my son, Mareto’s, first birthday came and went without this milestone. Shortly before his second birthday Mareto was diagnosed with autism and we began weekly speech therapy sessions as part of his early intervention. He still hadn’t called me “Mama.”
Everything in me was aching to be known by my son.
It was Mareto’s speech therapist, Danielle, who first suggested that we work on Mareto learning to call us by name. He was two years old and still communicated like a twelve-month-old, except he never said “Mama” or “Dada.” To start, Danielle taught him the words. We sat in her office week after week as she taught him the sounds, asking him to repeat after her on command. Eventually Mareto knew to say “Mama” when told, but he had no idea what the word meant. He’d just repeat it when asked.
