300 hundred words are meaningful words he uses toward his need. he use them to communicate. for example if he wants cookie, or water ,and ..........he will only say name of them instead of saying i want cookie.
i have a 5 years old son with mild autism. he start to talk last year. he has lots of words (300) his communicating with. but he doesnt seems he wants to have convorsation or use sentences. he is very smart, his about to read, he learn so fast. but seems like his speech is stuck. his phychologist was hoping he will talk this summer but not as we wished. she recommend me the tomatis metod auditory system in dallas. i dont know if anyone tried it or any one has kids like mine and the got beter later on. he is at spescial ed 10 hour a week. speech 2 times a week for 2 hour. and ot,hour a week. i dont know what else to do please help. thank you
My Nikolas is the exact same way, he can label all day long, knows words you would never expect. We can't fool him by calling a monkey a monkey, he can read the print and corrects us. He is extremely smart, taught himself to read, but can't tell me what he wants for dinner, can't answer yes or no, and will look off into the distance if I try to get him to actually communicate. ABA therapy is working on this (actually VBA) and it is working. The first thing the guy did was drag Nikolas a little way across the tile floor, Nikolas was laying on it. Nikolas LOVED that and giggled. So the guy said What do you want? pull? and Nikolas lifted his feet and the guy pulled a little more. Then he said what do you want? What do you want? and waited. Pretty soon this little voice says pull. He got pulled and cheered. And then they did that exchange all over the foyer. I have extended this to everything, I give him the answer but he has to ask for what he wants before he gets it. Sometimes he will walk off without saying anything, but I don't give in. He'll come back later and we'll try again. He has discovered the power in this and the use of communication, so I make bigger demands. Cookie no longer gets him the cookie, he now says I want _____ most of the time. Pulling me around the house doesn't work anymore. He also says I don't want to now or I'm not going to. LOL! It is improving. and I have heard a couple of yeses and nos. If I ask him he had a good day at school he is almost answering me everytime. It does seem to be working for us. We haven't been doing this very long, the ABA therapist has been gone alot the last month for various reasons, but there has been improvement in a very short amount of time. We are not near the point of having a full blown conversation yet, but I am hopeful that one day we will.
I wanted to add that I asked the ABA therapist about PECS and he did not recommend them for Nikolas because Nikolas does have such an extensive vocabulary and he is not parroting,he knows the meaning of every word he knows. He thought Nikolas would use it as a crutch and it would cause him to further not use verbal communication. It would just replace the dragging me around the house to get what he wants. He did recommend it for Andrew though, Andrew actually does communicate, but his pronunciation is so bad we can't understand him and he gets very frustrated, so he thought this would help head off the frustration as his pronunciation improves.
lili - is he using his vocabulary to request things or otherwise let you know what he's feeling? Is he just labelling things on request - or is he just making random utterances not directed to anyone in particular? Give a bit more detail on the nature of his communication.
My youngest son has significantly delayed speech. His speech therapist strongly recommended VB/ABA. (VB = Verbal Behavior) It is by far the best thing we've done to help him with his speech. He did not start the program until just before his 6th birthday and he has made tremendous gains. IMO - VB/ABA is an excellent therapy for children who need help with language development.lili, I am with Linda that I think VB/ABA may be good for your son. My sonsMy Nikolas is the exact same way, he can label all day long, knows words you would never expect. We can't fool him by calling a monkey a monkey, he can read the print and corrects us. He is extremely smart, taught himself to read, but can't tell me what he wants for dinner, can't answer yes or no, and will look off into the distance if I try to get him to actually communicate. ABA therapy is working on this (actually VBA) and it is working. The first thing the guy did was drag Nikolas a little way across the tile floor, Nikolas was laying on it. Nikolas LOVED that and giggled. So the guy said What do you want? pull? and Nikolas lifted his feet and the guy pulled a little more. Then he said what do you want? What do you want? and waited. Pretty soon this little voice says pull. He got pulled and cheered. And then they did that exchange all over the foyer. I have extended this to everything, I give him the answer but he has to ask for what he wants before he gets it. Sometimes he will walk off without saying anything, but I don't give in. He'll come back later and we'll try again. He has discovered the power in this and the use of communication, so I make bigger demands. Cookie no longer gets him the cookie, he now says I want _____ most of the time. Pulling me around the house doesn't work anymore. He also says I don't want to now or I'm not going to. LOL! It is improving. and I have heard a couple of yeses and nos. If I ask him he had a good day at school he is almost answering me everytime. It does seem to be working for us. We haven't been doing this very long, the ABA therapist has been gone alot the last month for various reasons, but there has been improvement in a very short amount of time. We are not near the point of having a full blown conversation yet, but I am hopeful that one day we will.
I wanted to add that I asked the ABA therapist about PECS and he did not recommend them for Nikolas because Nikolas does have such an extensive vocabulary and he is not parroting,he knows the meaning of every word he knows. He thought Nikolas would use it as a crutch and it would cause him to further not use verbal communication. It would just replace the dragging me around the house to get what he wants. He did recommend it for Andrew though, Andrew actually does communicate, but his pronunciation is so bad we can't understand him and he gets very frustrated, so he thought this would help head off the frustration as his pronunciation improves.
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Linda--I'm so glad the VB is working so well with your son. It sounds like he uses a little Floortime in there as well. This is what really worked for my son so far. It's great that you are following through and requiring him to speak to get what he wants. Keep up the great work!
I agree with VB/ABA-- it has done wonders for us. My son went from 30 words at age 3 that he rarely used to too many to count that he uses in a functional manner just 6 months later.