In speech therapy, Nathaniel was sitting in the office chair (not the wheelchair). The therapist told me that he kept trying to move his left hip and sometimes he would put his left hand on the handle and seem to almost try to stand up. I suggested to her that maybe he was trying to adjust how he was sitting because he was not comfortable. After I told her that, she agreed that perhaps that was what he was trying to do. He was trying to fix himself! It means that he feels discomfort, recognizes where it is coming from, and knows how to try to fix it. When I told him that we recognized what he was doing, he smiled. He was proud of himself!
The caregivers have noticed that when he first wakes up and is still in bed, he sometimes vocalizes. So now, after he just wakes up, but before he starts getting ready, they talk to him with the goal of getting him to vocalize.