“She knows the word and repeats it when I say it, but she never uses the word herself.” These are things I hear from parents all the time. And it can be incredibly confusing. If your child can say bye when you say, “Say bye!”, why don't they just say bye when someone leaves? The answer is that being able to imitate a word is not the same as using communication independently. Knowing a word is different from using a word When we say: “Say bye.” and a child responds: “Bye!” the