My Nt 3 year old is asking 'why' non-top. It probably would annoy me if I
was not aware of how important a milestone that it.
My asd ds nevr asked why but he went through a phase from age 4 to 5
where he asked 'what's that' non-stop. But he never showed in interest in
the answer and in retrospect I think the question was more of a stim than
a real question.
My other dd is almost four and though I think she is NT I also think she
has a dash of asd. She comes up with a normal amout of original
language but she does not really ask 'why' She will ask 'Where are we
going? Where is the candy? type of stuff but not why-questions which
would signal a curiousnes about the world in general. She also does this
echo a lot where I say 'you slept late' and she will say "no, you slept late'.
(The only other asd thing I notice a lot is that when she runs she will
often shake her head very fast from side to side. It looks like a stim to
me.) I don't think anyone could diagnose her with anything at this time
but I am keeping my eye on her.
But anyway - how important are those questions? Anyone have NT kids
who did not ask a lot ? Or asd kids who did ask the 'why' questions?
Neither of my kids went through the why phase. My NT son is 5-1/2 and I feel he doesn't understand the wh- questions very well in either English or Norwegian, and that's one reason I'm keeping an eye on him (he went through a general evaluation this past school year, and the evaluator didn't see the need for a referral to further assessment at this time).
The girls very rarely ask a why? question. My son went through that obnoxious 'why?' stage - where they drive you absolulely nuts with the question - over and over and over! I think he was around three or so, though hard to remember. My guess is that very young typical kids use 'why?' more as a way of sustaining social interaction and less so for actually learning information (this is not the case now - at seven, why questions are definitely used for gaining knowledge, only). Since my girls were socially disinterested at that age, it stands to reason that they didn't go through this phase.
I'm not sure if 'all' typical kids go through this stage (by reading this thread, it would seem that no, not all kids do), though it's common enough to be a cliche.
None of mine have gone through the why stage, we are now in the what's that stage, I think cause everytime we look at a book I say what's that, so now they get a book, point to something and say what's that? Even if they already know the answer. And they wait for me to answer and won't go on until I do. They don't really do it spontaneously or naturally though, like they see something new and ask what's that. At least not that I have caught. I think I will pay more attention though. But all 3 do that, the ASD 4 year olds and the typical 2 year old.Sarah had to be taught "Why/because" questions..we bought flashcards and made some of our own taking pictures of the following scenerios:)
Why is mama yawning? Because she is sleepy
Why is sisi crying? Because she fell down
Why is mama brushing her hair? because it's messy
Why is sisi mad? Because her friend broke her toy
Why is mama holding her tummy? Because she has a tummyache
We made as many pairs as we could come up with..the more abstract "Why" questions came later in the natural environment and we just modeled them for her at first..ex. "Sarah why are we going to grandma's?Then modeled~ Because it's her birthday.. or "Sarah...why are we going to the store...because we need milk, bread ect....you can come up with these all day long:) Good luck!
Shelley,
Did or does Sarah ever ask any Why questions in her natural environment. I realize what you stated above was more teaching her the understanding of WHY....but does she or has she ever just came up to you and asked..."Mommy...why this...or why that?"
See...we taught Adam WHY and BECAUSE the same way you did with Sarah...but He has only asked why a handful of times at best on his own. Each time it was related to something that was pertaining to him which goes along with the whole self -centered thing..lol Nothing like NT children do. If prompted he could ask or say either...but in a natural setting it's different.
Just curious
Karrie