Any ideas for helping DS2 (3.2) to say "yes"

[lingle]

DS2's greatest weakness in speech just now is that, in answer to a question he does this:
"no" if he means no
repeats in a positive tone if he means "yes"
repeats in a slightly less positive tone if he means "I don't understand" or "I'm not really listening".
As you can imagine, this is baffling nursery all the time and even me some of the time. It's an entrenched habit, and he never uses the word "yes".

Any ideas team? I was thinking that we could all sit round the table and ask each other questions to which the answer is "yes" to model the word.

Otherwise, DS2 is doing great just now. It's getting hard to count the 2-word combinations he's coming up with (whoo hoo!)
And we're making good progress on addressing me as mummy rather than daddy (can't wait to get that one fixed)
And a real willingness to answer questions and starting to learn to listen a bit more to find out which question it is.

go over the top on the "YES" accompanied by frenzied nodding to get the point across?

so You -"Do you want sweets?"

DS reply "do you want sweets!"

You - "YES (nod) DS2 want sweets!". (I'm doing it as DS2 rather than "you" as if he's repeating back what you say a lot, then the me/you/I thing could get VERY tangled".

OR

You "Do you want sweets?"

DS reply "..Do you want sweets" - in uncertain tone.

You "NO! shake head, DS2 don't want sweets, no sweets".

BTW I know I am slaughtering correct grammar, but I think it's better to get the sentence length up first, then worry about the grammatical accurancy.

and yes, agree with melmam - once you think he gets the point, get stricter about him making a decent attempt to make a correct response before handing the sweets etc over.

nodding?
We have the oppsoite problem. dd has one sound for 'yes' and pretty much makes it for every thing. No used to be an absece of the 'yes' sound but now she says yes to everything.
So I've been nodding her head up and down for yes and shaking it for no. I don't think she can physically do either herself but I figured it might clarify the differnce if there was some physical feedback.
Or a 'yes' card with a happy smiley face and a 'no' card with a sad red face.
Sometimes visual or physical pathways in make the learning easier.

NMC are you sure she isn't playing with you?
dd has a very claer "naw" but her yes is not so claer.

DS2 (6) is still shaky on 'yes' - he tends to repeat the thing he wants, ie:
Me: DS2, do you want crisps?
DS2: Crisps
He sometimes says 'please' or 'OK' instead of 'yes' though, which I'm happy with, as it sounds natural.

We prompt 'yes' by making the sign (clenched fist 'nodding' up and down) - we found that nodding our heads didn't work as he wasn't focusing on our mouths. We've been able to fade the prompt, so that now we just have to start putting a fist in the air and he says 'yes'. I think your modeling idea round the table is a really good one though - that's what they suggest in the Hanen ' More Than Words' book.

It sounds as if your DS2 is doing fantastically well with his speech .

2shoes - I think no is tricky cos she has never ever had no said to her.
ed Psych says to offer her stuff she wont want so she can learn to say no.

Here's a couple of ideas - I love this woman's website, she's a speech therapist in the US who uses RDI, loads of tips & video examples. Scroll down for video clips of games teaching yes/no.

Autism Games

This is a tricky one for us too! We have "juice" or "not juice" still in response to "Do you want some juice". We're working on it but boy is it tough!
It's so reassuring to see 15 mo DS clearly shake his head when he doesn't want something! Except that now he's started copying his sister's speech quirks...her response to me saying "No" is always "Not no!" and now DS is starting to say that too...

hi lingle, how spooky, have just been doing this with ds1. What I did was take his favourite cuddly toy and say, is Zeddy (a brown and cream zebra thing) pink? ds1 laughed and replied no, I then went through all the colours until we got to the right one, and said yes, nodding the zebra's head vigorously. Sounds insane but it's got the concept through to him. You could try it with different animals or by turning it upside down if colours are no good for your ds.

He likes the game so much he's started asking the questions, which is great. And it's only been a few weeks that he's cracked naming people - mummy, daddy, granny, grandad etc. He greets ds2 by name every morning which is lovely.

DIL - that's a great site. Thanks for linking it!

We've just cracked naming people too kettlechip. He adored half term at nana's house as there were more people to sit round the table and be asked "wasyorname?" at top speed.

I can definitely see you idea working to introduce yes as DS2 is so similar to your DS. Not sure if he's let me use "doggie" as an extra but he did show me doggie's body parts today, which was dead cute.