A while ago I shared with you about my life inside a DVD series. I couldn’t fit everything into one post, unless I made it thousands upon thousands of words. I saved a story for today.
“Mom, you have to help me. I’m losing my eyesight.” That’s how Dr. J came out of his room one night.
“What?” I asked, quite perplexed.
“I’m losing my eyesight. I can’t see as much. I need more carrots.”
Oh, now I see. He was taking a bit from the cartoon about Alexander Graham Bell where Watson says, “Can you do this for a while? I’m losing my voice.” and changing it to a way to ask for a snack after being put to bed.
My vision needs help!
Dr. J has also taken a blurb from Fox in Socks by Dr. Seuss and used it to communicate his feelings about certain foods. Fox in Socks is a rather tongue-contorting book. At one point, Mr. Knox says something like, “I can’t say that. It makes my tongue quite lame, Sir.”
Dr. J has revamped it to look something like this:
Me: “Would you like some raisins?”
Dr. J: “I don’t like raisins anymore.”
Me: “What? You used to love raisins! Why don’t you like raisins anymore?”
Dr. J: “Because they’re sticky and they make my teeth quite lame.”
Chips and cereal bars also now make his teeth quite lame. Oh. Joy.
There are many more stories, but I won’t drag it out. It is interesting to watch my autism spectrum little man take things that he’s comfortable with and adapt it to make it fit his real-life situation. I’m sure lots of you out there have similar stories with your children or students. Care to share?
If you’d like to read a rather thoughtful post on echolalia and how it helps our kids (and how we can help them), Wednesday’s Woman Annie Eskeldson wrote a great post on her blog here.
June 24, 2011 at 9:58 AM
Have you ever seen Bubble Guppies? Every episode there is a part where the big fish says “What time is it” and all of the guppies reply “It’s time for lunch!”. Well one day, Cameron’s therapist casually looked at her watch and said to herself “What time is it?”. Cameron shouted “It’s time for lunch!”. Since then he has become the master at memorization and echos every PBS sponsor ad in between shows. Even though it’s not “normal” behavior, I think it’s cute and kind of funny. I can see how it might help him with his speech in the long run. Trying to find the positive in it!
June 24, 2011 at 11:00 AM
Allie, That is a great start! Looking forward to the day when he tells you it’s time for lunch and it really is! :)
June 24, 2011 at 12:04 PM
My son is very musical and can remember anything set to song (including advertising jingles, unfortunately), so we have tried to find anything we can on any school subject set to music, and he will slurp that right up. We have also had the experience that you mentioned, about using things from Dr. Seuss, to “talk” about real life stuff. Something about the funny way that Dr. Seuss strung words together really sticks in kids minds, huh?
June 24, 2011 at 1:19 PM
That’s interesting, Holly. Now that I think of it, some of Dr. Seuss’ books have a lyrical, musical quality to them. Maybe that’s why your son loves them!