Well it was just his imagination...

Dakota has -among other things- an auditory processing problem. This means what he hears doesn't make it to his brain without being scrambled; which means he cannot repeat it back to you the same way he or you heard it (of course the same can be said about almost all the politicians in Oklahoma). One of the ways this manifests itself is that he cannot process words of more than two syllables very well, more than three - forget it. Fortunately he has a great imagination and, like most kids with disabilites he makes ways for himself to adapt. For example, he has always been fascinated with lightning and electricity but has never been able to say 'e-lec-tri-ci-ty' (5 whole syllables). But he associates it with lights so he calls it 'lightricity'. You can also see him trying to compensate when you say something he doesn't understand - either the words or the concept. He will repeat what you said but not out loud. He will form the last 3 or 4 words as he tries to slow down what you said and run it a second time for his brain. For awhile every time we went somewhere he would bring his slippers. I aksed him about this- and the following is absolutely verbatim: "Why do you always bring your slippers? They're my case shoes. Your case shoes? Yes, case something happens to my nuther ones." Who's on first?