Joe’s speech-language pathologist has been working with him on communicating a desire for one thing over another. She tried using recordable switches, but he seemed more enthralled with the button itself and the sound it made than whatever toy or reward it got him.

So yesterday, she set out laminated photos of toys he’d seen before: two that he didn’t care about much (a stretchy Elmo and a yellow ball), and one that he adores (a “blue squishy thing” — none of us were sure what to call it!)

After a few tries, he got the message that touching the picture of the toy he wanted would get him the toy itself. Eureka!