Thanks! We are really excited- I feel like a door has been opened. Id still love to hear from other parents of verbal children on this, so if you have any insights as to what the more immediate future could hold for Ryan, id love to hear it. Are there ways I can REALLY hone in on these questions he starting to ask to even futher enhance his expressive, abstract communication?
Adam is 5. He has asked Why before...but it's not often that he does. I shrug it off to the fact that it's kinda part of the spectrum thing. He will ask Why questions if it is pertaining to his person..for instance...he could be angry because I put his backpack in the wrong place and he could say, "Why did you do that mommy???? My backpack is suppose to be ____" He still doesn't really ask WHY questions about the environment. He will ask a lot of WHat questions to get those things answered. Today he actually asked me a question that I was like WOW...He said..."How was I born?" LOL I told him he was in my belly just like all the rest of the kids and he came out when he was ready...and that's how he was born....lol It was cute.
Karrie
That is pretty exciting. Reminds of my pure delight when my 4 year old a few months ago was pretending to be animals!!! I was beginning to think he never would pretend at all and then he did.
I am studying to be a speech therapist and I would say you could maybe encourage the "why" questions with "how" questions that followed his what and where questions. Did that make sense? LOL
So if he asked "where is the kitty?" "Well, look, he's under the bed. I wonder how he got under there." Could get him thinking about why and perhaps spur some conversation.
You could also read books that have questions and answers. A couple that I like: Brown bear, brown bear; Polar bear, polar bear; and Mr. Seahorse. I think they are all by Eric Carle. Another fun book is Click clack moo. I don't think it has question/answer format but I could see how it would make a kid wonder why - it's fun to read about cows going on strike anyway.
As far as my other kids who are NT. It seems like when the why question came along it drove me nuts. "Why's the moon following us?" Well, it isn't really. "Why not?" Well, I don't know. "Why don't you know mama?" Okay honey maybe you are right - maybe the moon is following us and I don't know why. "Why not?" LOL
I will look up the expected develop flow if you want.
I am just so happy for you. It is absolutely thrilling when they make a milestone isn't it?
Tricia
Mason is kind of stuck too...he has been asking the what and where for awhile now, but I rarely hear when, who...and I have never heard a why or even a how...but I'm still optomistic, I know it's only a matter of time!
Great job and congrats!!!!
In the past 4 months, he would ask "where" something was that he couldnt find only once in awhile, but all of a sudden hes generalizing it to people ("where is daddy?" and objects that he cant find). Hes also is pointing to things in books that he doesnt know and asking "what is this?". In the past few days hes doing it a lot (we're giving him a ton of reinforcement every time he does it).
So, while Im reveling in this, Id like to hear from parents with verbal kids about their experiences when their kids started asking these kinds of questions. I gather its the start of more abstract communication, but can you think back to when your kids started asking basic questions and the types of language skills that followed? What do I have to look forward to?
I still say Im booking a trip to Disney for Ryan the day i get a "why" question-- Im sure we have a long way to go for that, but I feel like it could be on the horizon!
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