Verbal with prompting. | Autism PDD

Allegra,

When Brandon started talking at three, most of his speech was prompted, but he then pretty quickly progressed to saying one or two words spontaneously and appropriately. Now, at five, he has a very large vocabulary (but is still severly delayed in speech) and can usually get his point across.

I think it is a great sign that Sharlet is now repeating words, because in my experience with Brandon, that was the first step.

That's great!

FWIW, immediate echolalia is a normal stage in language development - it just seems to occur later and last longer in our kids (many of the ASD symptoms are like this). My son had a pronounced echolaliac phase (moreso than either of my daughters), though at an developmentally appropriate age and it came and went rapidly, after which language exploded. Abbie also had an echolaliac phase, though hers occurred at a much later age and laster much longer than Aedan's. Abbie's language took off after this phase, too. Evie never had an echolalia phase, at least that I noticed.

It is definitely a pre-cursor to functional langauge, and I think that you have reason to be encouraged, given Sharlett's young age.

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Tom has a lot of delayed echolalia, sometimes he seems to just say the words just because (ie it doesn't seem relevant to the situation) but other times there is some sense. Eg if I say to him "did you have worktime at nursery today Tom? Have worktime?" he'll often reply with "worktime, storytime, drink time, outside play and singing", saying it in a singsong fashion as though he was reciting it. because that's part of the planning routine for what they do at his nursery. To give another example the other day I told him we were going to bake cakes and he replied: "cake, birthday cake, birthday party, birthday card, I wonder ..... little ted ... birthday" because he'd been watching a programme called Something Special on birthdays a couple of days before.

Other times his delayed echolalia seems to come out of the blue, or at least triggered by a couple of words. Eg a couple of weeks back I said to him "come on, time for nappy change" and he replied with "come on, it's time to go home .... bus .... Dave". Dave is the bus driver who picks him up from nursery.

He understands a fair few objects and things like colours and numbers, a few letters and shapes, but his understanding and verbal communication and to a lrage extent his non verbal communication, are not comparative with a typically developing three and a half year old.

Sarah did the same thing! She never had the delayed echolalia either. I prompted like crazy till it is second nature to me..the trick is to fade it out as soon as you can so she isn't prompt dependent..this is hard to do. I am very confident Sharlet will pick up language soon..it will be painfully slow but the rewards are great! Speech helped her alot with sounding out the alphabet one letter at a time thinking she had articulation problems but she just didn't focus on the sound enough to say it..so now that you know she can repeat words..get flashcards, make them and work with her on labeling them..paste them on poster boards..leave them on coffee table and around house to get her into them without demands at first..Sarah learned to read I feel because of flashcards, and speech helping sound out all the letters..reading just came natural after that:) I am so happy to hear the good news..Sarah spoke <5 words a day at 3 yr. old and most were prompted never for function..start slowly modeling for her what you want her to say. ex."Sharlet would you like apple juice?"..give her a chance to answer..if no ?....then model "yes" .."oh ! okay I will get you some"..this may be strange at first but you will get the hang of it..highly reinforceables will get the most response from her so make a list of what she likes and use them:) Good luck! Good news like this makes me so giddy because I know what's to come:)Blessings,

Shelley

I'm sure you've already thought of this, but picture books are a great way for building the kid's single word vocabulary. We used picture books with them, and played games where, at first, we'd point to something on the page and say, "What's this?", and then answer the question ourselves, and then right afterwords, ask again, "What's this?", and see if they answer. Using the same picture books help them 'succeed' as the laern the objects in one book, and they get the hang of the 'identification' game.

Hi everyone. Sharlet has started trying to say dozens of words just lately (still mispronounced), but she will only try them if prompted by me, or if she hears someone say it or on TV etc.

I'm guessing that it's a very good sign and that perhaps language will start to come at some point. Or do some kids learn to say a few dozen words but can't talk unless prompted permanently KWIM?
She doesn't have delayed echolalia, she will repeat the word straight after she's heard it, like an echo. So for eg we will see a dog, I say "dog" she says not dog but "dot". Mispronounced but obviously having a go.

What I am wondering is can some autistic people only say words when someone directly prompts them, like an echo so to speak, like perhaps "say hello Sharlet" and she says hello, but never could say hello without me if that makes sense.
Prompt, prompt, prompt. When SHarlet doesn't need the promptins, she'll drop it. ANY way you can get her to use language at this point is good. This is a HUGE step. Really, there is no way to predict how far she or any of our kids will go in language. Some wake up one day and start talking, most need far more support. Keep doing what you're doing. She is SO young. All of this is an EXCELLENT sign. To answer your question directly, yes some ASD people ALWAYS need prompting, but not the ones who eventually "get" what language is all about. The older kids I know who still need prompting are ones who don't feel the NEED to communicate, verbally, or ones who never got beyond echolalia and STILL don't "get" language. I think Sharlet already DOES "get" language but needs encouragement to use this new skill. I predict (in my big crystal ball

Karrie

My son Alex started repeating words we said or he had heard on telly. He could recite whole songs from High Five or Barney. I think it's called Echolalia - I dont think he was actually thinking about them, just repeating them if that makes sense. But either way, it certainly gave us some hope and I think it's terrific!

I'm not sure the age of your daughter but Alex is 5 and has really picked up a lot of words. He must have at least a couple of hundred words in his vocabulary, but still struggles sometimes. All I can say really is that they learn more and it gets easier as they get older.

When Connor 1st started speech therapy at 2, he was completely non-verbal, and the therapist asked how Connor communicated his needs - i.e., speaking or pointing. We said he did neither. When the therapist came to our home for a visit so that she could see Connor in his home environment, she observed that Connor had no need to communicate his wants and needs because they were all met without him having to do anything. We fed him, gave him drinks, put on videos, left toys lying around, so that he never had to "ask" to get what he wanted. The therapist expained that kids, as all of us, do our best when we have some motivation.

Well, after that visit I went out and bought a myriad of plastic tubs, transparent, all shapes and sizes. I put all of the toys, videos and anything else Connor liked in these tubs and put them in a big closet. On the computer I created a label for each tub. Each label had a picture (from google image library or clipart) of the item/toy in the tub, and the name of the contents. We would then bring Connor to the closet and he would either have to point or say the word to get the bin down. If he pointed to a higher bin, I would pick him up and have him put his finger right on the label of the bin he wanted. I would then try and model with him what he should be saying when he wanted the bin. By the time he was 3 he would point at the train bin and say "train." By the time he was 4 he could say "train please mommy." Now at 6 he will say "Mommy, can you get the train bin down for me please? Hurry!"

We went through a similar exercise with drinks/snacks. I'd ask him if he wanted a drink - no answer. I'd bring him into a kitchen, pick him up to the cabinet and ask him which color cup he'd like, bring him to the fridge and get him to indicate which juice he'd like in the cup. We turned everything into an opportunity to have multiple circles of communication and he really started to flourish.

Hi Allegra!

This is great news!!! I used to think that my son would become "prompt dependent", and for a long time he was. It was almost like he would repeat what we wanted him to so we would "get off his back"

. He still is not conversational, but the words are coming (he's 5.5 now). He just recently, withing the last month, started labeling things that he sees around him (flag, birds, car), all one word, but unprompted, and not by flash cards.

The rest of his speech is still echoed, immediate and delayed, but it's great to hear those 1 word "statements".

Keep up the prompting. When she wants something, like a cookie, hold it in front of her, and make her attempt to say it before you give it to her. If you keep it up, she will start to say it on her own.

Great news!!!

nakama

My almost 5 yr old had delayed echolaic but now does have functional lanagage with delayed echolatic I think when he doesn't know what to say he throws in movie scripts and things.

My 2.5 yr old has immediate and delayed echolaic but is getting better. I think it is a GREAT sign and step for her!!

Michael had immediate AND delayed echolalia between 2 and 3. That was only form of speech he had during that time. We had to prompt him to say anything and everything..even ABCs and counting which were the ones he could pronounce and articulate the best and he enjoyed saying over and over again.

Keep up with the prompting and praise her TONS and TONS and reward her when she does it !!