I can't stop thinking about this story - and that is a compliment. Although I couldn't put it down, I cringed my way through the child language that just is not realistic for a 5 year old child in that situation. The author herself, in the author notes, says that Ma could give him one thing and that was "language." Then why is the child portrayed with staccato sentences and verb tense errors throughout? That is simply not realistic for a child who is engaging in language throughout the day - more than anything else he does - he simply would not be making those errors at five years old with his mother right there as a model. "Rided?" it could happen once, but mother would gently and earnestly correct it - especially when "language" is all they had to do all day. The argument that he was developmentally delayed doesn't work because of the higher level thoughts the author attributes to the child. With "insights" like he had, his language wouldn't have lagged that far behind. It just doesn't happen that way, because thoughts are language. (I am a Speech/Language Pathologist.)