"Hey, what about wout me?" he screams as he runs through the house collecting various toys.
"Awh, Mom did you hear him?" asked my younger teen who has recently become a bleeding heart when it comes to her brother.
"Yes honey I heard him. He isn't really asking anything though." I assume this explains everything and she can get back to her homework.
"What do you mean he isn't asking? I thought you said you heard him."
" I did, but it's echolalia." I explain
"What's that?"
I am shocked. How can I have not explained this to her? How is a sister of a boy with autism going to get by? No wonder she thinks he means everything he says.
"It means he is just repeating a sentence that he has heard, but he hasn't put any meaning behind it."
"How do you know?" She looks at me unconvinced.
"Well, lets work it out together. Does he look like he asking anyone for something?"
"No."
"Is he trying to get any ones attention?"
"No."
"Has anyone got anything or got to do anything that he hasn't?"
"No."
"So why would he be asking 'What about me?' then?"
"Hmmm, I don't know. So where did he hear it?"
"My best guess would be from one of your girls."
We continue our conversation about echolalia and scripting, and soon she is a new expert on the subject. He watches his daily dose of Sesame Street with us and as Elmo says "Guess what Elmo's thinking about today!"
We have seen this episode loads of times and we all know what Elmo is thinking about and turning Connor toward me I say in perfect unison with Elmo, "Dinosaurs Yea!!"
She rolls her eyes and laughs "Script much?"
4 comments:
Sounds like your daughters have the same great hope you do, and I bet it will happen.
I guess you gotta be careful what you say around Connor huh?
Geez, good thing he doesn't hear me at times!!!
Great post. Lovely story for us all.
Great post. Great family.
Best wishes
yep...gotta love script talk. my son picks out things from videos or books. one thing though is that sometimes if you do treat it as intentional speech and as meaningful...you can sometimes get the child to engage.
my son sometimes uses songs to communicate with me. when he is angry with me he will play the song from the grinch..."you're a mean one mister grinch."
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I love it when they use the echo to express themselves - mitigated echolalia. Very exciting. It sort of marks the transition from echo-ey speech to functional speech. Sounds like he's working on it!
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