Non-Verbal Autistic and their siblings

          Today I have been thinking so much about my son Dylan's speech and how it effecting his little sister Sofia. Dylan has learned to communicate to me the things he needs but almost none of it is vocal and Sofia seems to be taking a liking to Dylan's way of getting things done. The first thing Dylan learned to communicate to me was hunger. He only eats pedi-sure type nutrition drinks so far, but he lets me know hes hungry by tossing his cup at me or at least that's how he started doing it. Now hes starting to learn PECS communication and is getting better at not just chucking things at me when he wants them.
          Sofia has picked up his "cup chucking" to ask for a drink as well, shes 22 months and speaks when she wants but I think she thinks if her brother doesn't have to then she doesn't have to. I have gotten her to bring her cup nicely in the last month. She will bring the cup and even the preferred drink she wants to me handing them to me. Not saying anything even when I prompt "oh Juice, you want some juice Sofia?" Younger children learn so much from the older ones, and I'm worried for her speech. Dylan's OT before he started school this fall assured me this was just going to be a phase to keep prompting her and maybe even withholding the thing she wants until she says the word. Which is the same thing we do with Dylan in ABA therapy to try to get him to speak as well.
         Dylan has picked up some speech since starting school, he will say things such as "ut oh",  "oo oo", "hi", it kinda sounds like eye but we know hes trying for hi. And I have been told PECS leads to more and more speech as you are prompting with the PECS and saying the word at the same time he will soon pair the sounds with the pictures. I'm so proud of him for coming this far, he works very hard and so do we. I just hope this whole Sofia mimicking his every move will pass and that its not hold her back any.

~Jessie