Pondering with a Purpose: Goals

I've decided to join up with Brenda at brendayoungerman.blogspot.com for her Pondering with A Purpose meme this week... and the theme she's asked us to write on is - 
GOALS
Goals take on a new perspective when you have a special needs child... it can be heart rending when they start missing some of their early childhood milestones and once you know what you are dealing with, you learn to break your goals down into manageable quantities... 
For those who don't know about me and my children, my middle child, Liam has Autism and as a mom I knew there was something different about him at fifteen months... and got confirmation that it was Autism not long after his second birthday... where most people make it a goal to have their child speaking in full sentences, or at least phrases by three, our goal was for Liam to be able to make his basic wants and needs known using yes or no, pointing or pictures by the time he was three.  When he started school on his third birthday, he would respond to his own name about 50% of the time and would at least shake his head no or grab for something that was a preference, but he still spent his language time babbling primarily... but the one thing he could do was hum or 'sing' any tune... so we knew that with time and patience he would eventually get 'language'
By the end of that first year he was calling his teachers by name, starting to say words like cookie, milk and juice, mom, dad, nana, papa... and could make his wants and needs understood about 50% of the time... 
Fast forward to today, he'll turn six next month and is starting Kindergarten in a few weeks... his speech has improved significantly to the point where others can easily understand what he is saying at least half the time, although a lot of his speech is echolalia - repeated from other sources... but he has an incredible memory - he'll retell activities he did in that 3 year old preschool class, movies and TV programs he's watched and more... 
My goals for this year are for him to learn to rely less on 'stock phrases' and hopefully start to connect his language with current actions and maybe feelings - although that goal is probably a long term one... my other goal is to continue to help him improve his diction - so the rest of us can benefit from what he's saying... whether it's repeated or original ;-)
Being a mom to a special needs child has helped me put all of my goals in perspective - and savor the ones we attain more sweetly...