Yep, he's become more and more receptive to expanding the phrases. He loves the sounds of words. He just doesn't seem to find them as useful.
He likes to see what single word he can say to get us to talk or sing for a long time while he sits back and grins.
Just entertaining to him. Word judo. "What's the minimum verbalization I can get away with today?" To be honest, I actually get that. If I could get away with "coffee!!" I would. But I also value interpersonal relationships.
He's much more interested in reverse echolalia. And why not? We ask him to say these meaningless phrases, why can't he ask us to do the same?
He loves to make deals. "I'll get off the bus if you will promise I can listen to the Wiggles Popcorn Album right when we get in the door." But he says, "popcorn" and grins and sits in his seat until we say "ok, popcorn."
He's making deals with us because we make deals with him. We taught him it's all about making deals. I'm actually glad he realized that and finds it useful. We get to know what's on his mind.
He also likes A B verbalization, which is new. I say A, he says B in response. So, one time I told him to say hi to someone named Nichole. He said "Hi Quarter." Get it? Nickle -> Quarter!
That's the exchange he'd prefer. Formulatic. Extremely minimal. In reality, we do try to push him beyond one-word requests.