Therapy so far

We are only a few weeks in and I can see changes in Stephanie already. They are working on her behaviors and language first while I they are still getting her to play with them her way. That means she gets to lead the play time and choose the activities. While they are playing the therapists are constantly saying the words of things that she is playing with. Like for instance she has the game Lucky Ducks which is really a game of matching the shape on the bottom of the duck to the a place on the pond where the ducks swim. Stephanie isn't ready to play it the way it is suppose to be played but loves putting the ducks on the pond and taking them off (the pond also quacks the whole time while they swim). So they try to have ahold of the ducks and every time she asks for "more" they say "duck, duck, duck". That way she gets to hear the word over and over and when it is time for her to say it she will have heard it in that situation so many times it will be easier for her to remember it. They also have a clicker (number counter) and every time she says a word, any word, they click it and keep a tally of all her "words" throughout her sessions.
They also have us learning about what to do with her tantrums and her whining. So now if she is whining about something whether we know what it is or not we ignore the behavior until she stops. This also goes when for she is crying and wants to be picked up and snuggled. She gets no attention for that kind of behavior. We also are following though more her doing things she can do and if she needs help she needs to ask for it instead of throwing a fit. She needs to follow through on something when she is asked to do. Like she can take of her pull up herself when she is wet but sometimes she doesn't want to and it's a battle of us getting mad and her crying. So now we say "Stephanie take your pull off" and we may have to say that for 5-10-15 minutes, until she does it. We say it every 3-5 seconds during that whole time. Driving Jeff and I crazy sometimes. She isn't allowed to do anything else until she does what is asked either. This will go along with anything that she is asked to do that she can. It is her making the choice and choosing to do it on her own. So far she has been testing us and has made it to 10 minutes a couple of times but eventually she does it. She was even having a tantrum at church yesterday and I took her out to the back and had to say "put your dress down" for about 5-7 minutes until she finally did. Once she did she had no problem going back to church and was fine. So things are getting there. They are about to move onto the next step for her and I'll find out more about that later this week.

Out of all the words they click, she has somewhere between 30-40 words that she says or has some approximation for the word. I can't wait for her to talk. She has been saying "mommy" again but this is only when I am ignoring her bad behavior and she want me to pick her up. Hard not to give in then but I want to hear her say it nicely.
Keep up the good work Stephanie.