Jake and I started small. We programmed one recordable answer buzzer to say “outside.” We thought this button would be a good size for Stella to activate with her paw. Every time we said “outside” to Stella, we modeled use of the button by pushing it with our foot. ...
I did not wait for Stella to perfect her use of “outside” before adding more words to her expressive vocabulary. We quickly programmed more buttons to say words we commonly say to Stella or words we thought she was trying to communicate to us. These included “eat, water, play, walk, no, come, help, bye, love you.” Every day I spent time using Stella’s buttons to talk with her and teach her words just as I would in speech therapy sessions with children. Instead of rewarding Stella with a treat for using a button, we responded to her communication by acknowledging her message and responding accordingly. ...
Instead of always requesting from us, she began commenting. This first happened when I was watering my plants. Stella said “water” while watching me, even though her water dish was full. She protested by saying “no” if we told her something she didn’t want to do, and directed us to “come” when Stella wanted us to come outside with her or come see what she was doing in another room.
The most exciting, unexpected milestone was when Stella began combining words to make two-word phrases. Stella would say “no eat” or “eat no” if we took too long to feed her, “walk no” if we didn’t take her for a walk, “eat play” to request her toy filled with food, “help come” when she needed help in another room. One afternoon shortly after the Daylight Savings time change, Stella said, “eat” repeatedly at about 3:00 PM. When Jake and I did not feed her dinner this early she said, “love you no” and walked into the other room.