Merrill's song

A video of Happy Birthday, one of Merrill's favorite things about eating out - he loves it when the waitstaff clap!

Music is such a large part of Merrill's world - at age 5, he is still 99% non-verbal. He uses only the most basic of signs (sign language) and only uses PECs (picture book) when he's in the mood. When he does talk, his speech is garbled, almost slurred. He has about 40 words, and seems to comprehend about a dozen of them (water, food, pop tart, wiggles, you tube, kiss, night).

But turn on a song he knows... and Merrill smiles! Imagine being locked in your mind, unable to communicate most things, but being able to dance and "sing" along with a song... very powerful, and cool, stuff.

Under the table, Hunter did just as he was supposed to, and slept. Hunter is Merrill's Service Dog, you can read about our efforts to raise awareness of Autism Service Dogs at Merrill's Fund.